Moscow WTCC: Yvan Muller beats Citroen team-mate Jose Maria Lopez

By keeping Citroen team-mate Jose Maria Lopez behind him, Muller halted a run of consecutive victories in the opening races of WTCC weekends from the defending champion that stretched back to Shanghai last October.

After maintaining the lead at the start, Muller was followed closely by Lopez, Gabriele Tarquini and Rob Huff in the early laps as the lead quartet broke away from the rest of the field.

Muller then began to pull away from Lopez, beating him to the chequered flag by just under three seconds to record his second straight win in the series.

Points leader Lopez was untroubled in second as Honda driver Tarquini concentrated on defending third from Huff, denying the Lada team a podium on home soil by less than three tenths of a second at the line.

Ma Qing Hua beat Tom Chilton into fifth at the start but could not stay in touch with the top four.

Norbert Michelisz was seventh ahead of Tiago Monteiro and Sebastien Loeb.

From 11th on the grid, Loeb enjoyed a good start to rise to eighth, but was passed down the inside by Monteiro on lap three.

After surviving opening lap contact with Tom Coronel that tipped his fellow Dutchman into a spin, Jaap van Lagen climbed up into the top 10 with a move on new Lada team-mate Nicky Catsburg.

Another incident on the first lap featured Stefano D'Aste running into the back of Mehdi Bennani under braking, taking both off track.

RESULTS - 16 LAPS: