Rydell beats Larini in race one

Prior to Estoril, the Swede had been the only SEAT Sport driver not to have won a race this year, but he was able to hold off Larini's Chevrolet to take the victory in Portugal.

In a chaotic first corner, Larini also lost ground to Rydell's teammate Yvan Muller, and was third at the end of the opening lap.

Larini then deprived Muller of the position on lap two, taking a run up the Frenchman's inside on the exit of the first turn.

Thereafter, Larini was consistently the fastest driver on track, but despite closing up to Rydell at up to half a second per lap, the Italian was unable to find a way by, and finished eight tenths of a second behind the SEAT.

"There have been two keys to winning today," said Rydell. "The first was qualifying well, because I started down in 14th in both Brno and Valencia, and the second was the start.

"Larini was good on the straights and in the braking, so if he had been ahead of me into the first turn then it would have been very difficult to get by. It also helped when Muller was behind in the early laps, because it meant I didn't have to push and overstress my tyres."

Muller did not have the pace of the leaders, and had a solitary run to finish third.

The battle for fourth involved a race-long three car scrap between Jordi Gene (SEAT), Chevrolet's Robert Huff and reigning world champion Andy Priaulx (RBM BMW).

Huff and Gene had clashed at the start as Huff tried to go around the outside of the lead pack, allowing Priaulx to split the pair in fifth.

Priaulx's BMW lacked the straight-line speed to overtake Gene, and on lap nine dropped behind Huff at Turn 3. Huff was able to provide a greater threat to Gene, and on the last lap forced the Spaniard into a tiny error on the exit of Turn 1 to win the position.

Gabriele Tarquini remains in the lead of the championship, despite finishing out of the points for the first time this season, in 13th. The SEAT driver was delayed after sustaining contact on an eventful opening lap, on which BMW's Augusto Farfus retired in a separate incident.

James Thompson's N-Technology run Honda did not start after a third engine failure of the weekend in the pre-race warm-up.

Pos  Driver                Car                Time
 1.  Rickard Rydell        SEAT Leon TDI      22:05.135
 2.  Nicola Larini         Chevrolet Lacetti  +   0.816
 3.  Yvan Muller           SEAT Leon TDI      +   8.160
 4.  Robert Huff           Chevrolet Lacetti  +  10.681
 5.  Jordi Gene            SEAT Leon TDI      +  12.316
 6.  Andy Priaulx          BMW 320si          +  12.605
 7.  Tiago Monteiro        SEAT Leon TDI      +  13.222
 8.  Felix Porteiro        BMW 320si          +  13.662
 9.  Jorg Muller           BMW 320si          +  13.847
10.  Tom Coronel           SEAT Leon          +  14.866
11.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet Lacetti  +  16.611
12.  Pierre-Yves Corthals  SEAT Leon          +  22.834
13.  Gabriele Tarquini     SEAT Leon TDI      +  24.956
14.  Stefano D'Aste        BMW 320si          +  36.335
15.  Kristian Poulsen      BMW 320si          +  38.911
16.  Jaap Van Lagen        Lada 110           +  39.114
17.  Andrei Romanov        BMW 320si          +  39.925
18.  Ibrahim Okyay         BMW 320si          +  50.265
19.  Franz Engstler        BMW 320si          +  59.521
20.  Alessandro Zanardi    BMW 320si          +1:35.186

Retirements:

     Sergio Hernandez      BMW 320si          8
     Augusto Farfus        BMW 320si          2
     Olivier Tielemans     BMW 320si          1
     Viktor Shapovalov     Lada 110           1
     Tom Boardman          SEAT Leon          0