Muller extends lead with Monza victory

Muller led away from pole while teammates Gabriele Tarquini and Rickard Rydell protected him from behind. After allowing Tarquini a stint at the front midway through the race, Muller used a slingshot out of the Italian's tow at the start of the final lap to retake the lead and went on to claim a comfortable win.

Tarquini held station for second with Rydell crossing the line in third, although SEAT will have to wait for their 1-2-3 to be confirmed after race stewards announced that they were looking into an incident involving the Swede and Chevrolet's Nicola Larini on the final lap.

The pair had been fighting over the final podium place and Larini lunged as they made their way into the first corner for the final time.

Rydell defended hard, but ran out of road and was forced to take a shortcut through the chicane. He rejoined in the lead and quickly allowed Muller and Tarquini past before resuming his place ahead of Larini.

Moments later, Larini's race got even worse when his Lacetti suddenly slowed on the exit of Ascari. He still managed to get to the finish, but not before Andy Priaulx (BMW) and Tiago Monteiro (SEAT) had passed him for fourth and fifth respectively.

There were even bigger problems for N.Technology, who face an uphill battle to have James Thompson's Honda Accord ready for race two after it sustained heavy damage in a crash at the start.

Thompson was in the middle of the pack on the run to the first corner when he was tagged and turned around, taking several hits before finally coming to rest in the middle of the chicane.

BMW's Felix Porteiro, who was one of those involved, also retired shortly afterwards with damage, with teammate Augusto Farfus joining him in the garage after parking his Team Germany 320si on the main straight midway through the race.

In the Independents' class, SEAT driver Pierre-Yves Corthals managed to hold off Franz Engstler for the win, despite having also been caught up in the Thompson incident at turn one.

Pos Driver                    Team               Gap
 1. Yvan Muller               SEAT         18:16.448
 2. Gabriele Tarquini         SEAT            +0.277
 3. Andy Priaulx              BMW             +1.710
 4. Tiago Monteiro            SEAT            +3.699
 5. Nicola Larini             Chevrolet       +8.111
 6. Robert Huff               Chevrolet       +8.206
 7. Jordi Gene                SEAT            +8.434
 8. Alex Zanardi              BMW            +11.056
 9. Jorg Muller               BMW            +11.547
10. Tom Coronel               SEAT           +14.396
11. Alain Menu                Chevrolet      +19.722
12. Pierre-Yves Corthals      SEAT           +21.114
13. Franz Engstler            BMW            +21.722
14. Sergio Hernandez          BMW            +24.884
15. Manabu Orido              Chevrolet      +28.993
16. Rickard Rydell            SEAT            +0.972*
17. Takayuki Aoki             BMW            +31.499
18. Andrey Romanov            BMW            +36.751
19. Ibrahim Okyay             BMW            +37.459
20. George Tanev              BMW            +45.927
21. Yuki Taniguchi            Honda          +47.715
22. Kirill Ladygin            Lada           +58.278
23. Kristian Poulsen          BMW             +1 lap
24. Stefano D'Aste            BMW            +2 laps

Retirements

    Augusto Farfus            BMW             5 laps
    Felix Porteiro            BMW             3 laps
    Viktor Shapovalov         Lada            2 laps
    James Thompson            Honda           0 laps
    Duarte Felix da Costa     SEAT            0 laps
    Jaap van Lagen            Lada            0 laps

*Rydell given 30s penalty for gaining unfair advantage

Fastest lap, Priaulx 2:00.443 on lap 8