Rydell wins wet race one at Okayama

The Swede passed BMW's Jorg Muller for the lead with four laps remaining, and withstood an immediate counter-attack before going to take the win by 5.6 seconds.

Andy Priaulx (BMW) completed the podium by working his way up to third after starting 11th, a performance made all the more impressive by the tricky conditions caused by showers of rain shortly before the start.

Battling for the positions between third and eighth continued right up until the final lap. Rob Huff ended up fourth for Chevrolet ahead of SEAT's Tiago Monteiro, who had been running in third during the opening stages.

But the SEAT driver spent the entire race trying to defend himself against the long queue of cars behind him, and while Priaulx and Huff managed to get past, N.Technology's James Thompson was less lucky, being assisted into a spin while attacking the Leon on the final lap.

The last lap jostling worked out well for BMW's Augusto Farfus, who had started from pole but fell back to 13th after being caught up in the bumping at the first corner.

The Brazilian worked his way back up to sixth ahead of championship leader Yvan Muller, who up until that point had seemed content to settle for eighth and secure pole for race two. Thompson's sudden exit ruined those plans though, and the honour will instead go to SUNRED Engineering SEAT's Tom Coronel.

The race was a disaster for Muller's SEAT teammate and main title rival Gabriele Tarquini, who flew off the track at the first corner and rejoined 17th. He eventually crossed the line in tenth place, two spots outside the points.

Pos  Driver              Car                  Time
 1.  Rickard Rydell      SEAT Leon TDI        26:24.554
 2.  Jorg Muller         BMW 320si            +   5.607
 3.  Andy Priaulx        BMW 320si            +   6.941
 4.  Robert Huff         Chevrolet Lacetti    +  10.696
 5.  Tiago Monteiro      SEAT Leon TDI        +  13.051
 6.  Augusto Farfus      BMW 320si            +  13.203
 7.  Yvan Muller         SEAT Leon TDI        +  14.301
 8.  Tom Coronel         SEAT Leon            +  14.760
 9.  Stefano D'Aste      BMW 320si            +  15.179
10.  Gabriele Tarquini   SEAT Leon TDI        +  15.225
11.  Jordi Gene          SEAT Leon TDI        +  16.023
12.  Sergio Hernandez    BMW 320si            +  16.410
13.  Alessandro Zanardi  BMW 320si            +  18.866
14.  Franz Engstler      BMW 320si            +  23.215
15.  Takayuki Aoki       BMW 320si            +  23.397
16.  Nicola Larini       Chevrolet Lacetti    +  23.545
17.  James Thompson      Honda Accord Euro R  +  25.242
18.  Jaap Van Lagen      Lada 110             +  49.886
19.  Andrey Romanov      BMW 320si            +  54.149
20.  Kirill Ladygin      Lada 110             +1:01.646
21.  Yukinori Taniguchi  Honda Accord Euro R  +1:03.702
22.  Matthew Marsh       BMW 320si            +1:17.880
23.  Melvin Choo         BMW 320si            +1:37.976
24.  Masaki Kano         BMW 320i             +1:46.172

Not classified:

    Driver              Car                  Laps
    Ibrahim Okyay       BMW 320si            8
    Manabu Orido        Chevrolet Lacetti    1
    Felix Porteiro      BMW 320si            1
    Alain Menu          Chevrolet Lacetti    1
    Norbert Michelisz   SEAT Leon            0