Porto WTCC: Muller beats team-mate Chilton in race one

Chevrolet dominated the race, locking out the top four spots once Gabriele Tarquini's Honda dropped out of fourth with a blown turbo on lap eight.

Michel Nykjaer, a three-time winner already this season, was third ahead of Pepe Oriola, who was just half a second shy of collecting a podium in his first race since switching from SEAT to the Cruze.

Rob Huff and James Thompson, meanwhile, had relatively lonely drives to fifth and sixth respectively.

The static order at the front was initially true of the entire field, but changed dramatically in a bizarre and dangerous crash on lap 10.

Tarquini's stricken Honda was already parked at Turn 13, covered by yellows, when a recovery vehicle entered the circuit and wound up just ahead of a massive pack of cars at the preceding Turn 12.

In the ensuing chaos it was hit by Franz Engstler's BMW, while Fredy Barth spun in avoidance while exiting the corner.

Lada's Mikhail Kozlovskiy then did excellently to squeeze through an ever-decreasing gap between Barth's BMW - now sideways across the track - and the aftermath of Englster's collision with the recovery car.

The safety car was called, and after two laps ducked back in, leading to a final-lap shootout.

Once more the order at the front remained unchanged, but there was drama further back as Tom Coronel - racing after following threats to skip the weekend by missing warm-up - finally fought his way past Marc Basseng following race long pressure in what was a battle for seventh.

Basseng was hung out to dry and also lost out to Stefano D'Aste and local favourite Tiago Monteiro, dropping to 10th at the flag.

Tom Boardman also lost out on the final lap, sliding into the wall after tangling with Darryl O'Young in a fight for 12th.

Results - 12 laps:

Pos Driver              Team/Car               Time/Gap
 1. Yvan Muller         RML Chevrolet          27m38.637s
 2. Tom Chilton         RML Chevrolet          + 0.343s
 3. Michel Nykjaer      Nika Chevrolet         + 0.665s
 4. Pepe Oriola         Tuenti Chevrolet       + 1.318s
 5. Rob Huff            Munnich SEAT           + 2.493s
 6. James Thompson      Lada                   + 3.662s
 7. Tom Coronel         ROAL BMW               + 6.333s
 8. Stefano D'Aste      PB BMW                 + 6.416s
 9. Tiago Monteiro      Honda                  + 6.977s
10. Marc Basseng        Munnich SEAT           + 7.576s
11. James Nash          Bamboo Chevrolet       + 10.632s
12. Darryl O'Young      ROAL BMW               + 11.014s
13. Hugo Valente        Campos SEAT            + 11.485s
14. Alex MacDowall      Bamboo Chevrolet       + 11.953s
15. Charles Ng          Engstler BMW           + 12.291s
16. Fernando Monje      Campos SEAT            + 12.842s
17. Nikolay Karamishev  Campos SEAT            + 13.234s
18. Fredy Barth         Wiechers BMW           + 13.736s
19. Mikhail Kozlovskiy  Lada                   + 33.630s
20. Tom Boardman        Special Tuning SEAT    + 1 lap
21. Franz Engstler      Engstler BMW           + 3 laps

Retirements:

    Rene Munnich        Munnich SEAT           8 laps
    Gabriele Tarquini   Honda                  7 laps
    Mehdi Bennani       Proteam BMW            3 laps
    Norbert Michelisz   Zengo Honda            1 lap