WTCC Moscow: Yvan Muller wins interrupted first race

The Frenchman had to deal with heavy race-long pressure from the ROAL BMW of Tom Coronel and also a lengthy stoppage caused by a heavy crash as the field hit Turn 1 for the first time.

Charles Ng, who had started a career-best ninth, got loose on the crest and was tagged by Freddy Barth, who in turn was being pushed by Stefano D'Aste. The impact also collected Darryl O'Young and Campos's newcomer Nikolai Karamyshev.

The safety car was called out as a response, but yellow soon turned to red when it transpired that the rescue vehicle had itself broken down. After a lengthy pause it was deemed impossible to remove, and thereafter the race ran with permanent yellows at Turn 1.

While that helped Muller's cause, it also deprived the entire field of a key overtaking opportunity, making the fight out front largely processional despite several close battles.

Coronel, for example, finished just half a second down on Muller, but was never able to mount a series challenge to pass.

The same held immediately behind, as Norbert Michelisz fended off Rob Huff - whom he had passed at the start - to claim third.

More than once Huff had a chance to sneak a look down the inside coming out of the final turn, only to have to abandon any attempt heading down to Turn 1.

Gabriele Tarquini finished just over one tenth of a second off the bumper off James Thompson's Lada in a battle for fifth, which was joined late on by Michel Nykjaer.

Pepe Oriola, James Nash and Tom Chilton were likewise covered by little more than one second, although they finished in formation from eighth through to 10th.

One man who did make progress was Honda's Tiago Monteiro. Forced to start from the back of the grid due to an engine change, he eventually came through to claim 13th, just behind Mehdi Bennani and D'Aste, who along with Barth is under investigation for the opening clash.

Results - 15 laps:

Pos Driver               Team/Car           Time/Gap
 1. Yvan Muller          RML Chevrolet      51m37.955s
 2. Tom Coronel          ROAL BMW           + 0.511s
 3. Norbert Michelisz    Zengo Honda        + 5.327s
 4. Rob Huff             Munnich SEAT       + 6.685s
 5. James Thompson       Lada               + 10.549s
 6. Gabriele Tarquini    Honda              + 10.718s
 7. Michel Nykjaer       Nika Chevrolet     + 11.053s
 8. Pepe Oriola          Tuenti SEAT        + 14.252s
 9. James Nash           Bamboo Chevrolet   + 15.047s
10. Tom Chilton          RML Chevrolet      + 15.420s
11. Stefano D'Aste       PB BMW             + 15.571s
12. Mehdi Bennani        Proteam BMW        + 16.111s
13. Tiago Monteiro       Honda              + 18.257s
14. Marc Basseng         Munnich SEAT       + 19.996s
15. Alex MacDowall       Bamboo Chevrolet   + 20.716s
16. Mikhail Kozlovskiy   Lada               + 29.113s
17. Fernando Monje       Campos SEAT        + 29.269s
18. Rene Munnich         Munnich SEAT       + 31.673s
19. Franz Engstler       Engstler BMW       + 2 laps
20. Darryl O'Young       ROAL BMW           + 3 laps
21. Nikolai Karamyshev   Campos SEAT        + 3 laps

Retirements:

    Fredy Barth          Wiechers BMW        0 laps
    Charles Ng           Engstler BMW        0 laps