Monteiro claims maiden win in Mexico

The Portuguese started from second on the grid after finishing seventh in the first race of the day, leaving the Chevrolet Lacetti of pole-sitter Alain Menu for dead. While Menu held off the rest of the SEAT diesels, Monteiro pulled out an advantage he would never lose.

"It was obviously my goal and one of the reasons to come to WTCC to be in a competitive car, but of course until you win your first one you never know," said Monteiro.

"Today was the day. But it was a whole team job - we've done a great job since the beginning of the season."

First Gabriele Tarquini and then Rickard Rydell found their way past Menu, but it was the Swede who took runner-up spot, and the lead in the championship, when Tarquini put a wheel off the track with two laps to go.

"I was settling for third place and was pleased to finish on the podium twice," said Rydell. "I felt that I was a bit quicker than Gabriele but I couldn't get past. He made a bit of a mistake and I got through.

"The key was my start, got past both Larini and Coronel, then I was really lucky with things. If we were here with six or seven petrol cars I think we could have finished in the same positions."

Yvan Muller claimed fourth ahead of teammate Jordi Gene, while SUNRED Engineering's Tom Coronel made it a remarkable day for the marque with sixth place in his petrol-powered SEAT Leon TFSI.

Menu survived a big off-track moment while running third on lap 11 to take seventh ahead of Andy Priaulx, the only BMW driver to score points during the weekend.

Pos  Driver            Make       Time
 1.  Tiago Monteiro    SEAT       27:40.930
 2.  Rickard Rydell    SEAT       +   4.425
 3.  G.Tarquini        SEAT       +   5.275
 4.  Yvan Muller       SEAT       +   6.013
 5.  Jordi Gene        SEAT       +   8.914
 6.  Tom Coronel       SEAT       +  11.218
 7.  Alain Menu        Chevrolet  +  13.597
 8.  Andy Priaulx      BMW        +  14.246
 9.  Robert Huff       Chevrolet  +  14.556
10.  Augusto Farfus    BMW        +  15.029
11.  A.Zanardi         BMW        +  19.129
12.  Jorg Muller       BMW        +  20.726
13.  P-Y.Corthals      SEAT       +  27.261
14.  Stefano D'Aste    BMW        +  32.740
15.  Sergio Hernandez  BMW        +  33.862
16.  Franz Engstler    BMW        +  54.137
17.  O.Tielemans       BMW        +1:04.142
18.  Andrey Romanov    BMW        +1:08.489
19.  Ibrahim Okyay     BMW        +  1 Lap
20.  Felix Porteiro    BMW        +  3 Laps
21.  Nicola Larini     Chevrolet  Retirement

Fastest lap: Yvan Muller, 1:42.418 on lap 14