Zanardi wins Brno race one

Despite losing the lead to ROAL Motorsport BMW teammate Felix Porteiro at the start, Zanardi passed the Spaniard on lap three to lead home the first-ever one-two finish at this level for the team run by 1987 WTCC champion Roberto Ravaglia.

"It's hard to believe it," said Zanardi, whose last win came in Istanbul in 2006. "I was very optimistic coming here to Brno. I knew that our car would work really well and that as a team we had a very good set-up, which we showed last year, but I could not expect to be this competitive and win from pole position."

The Italian also had to fend off a strong challenge from Chevrolet's Alain Menu into the first corner.

"It was very tight in Turn 1 - I had Felix on one side and on the other I had Alain," Zanardi said. "His was the last car I wanted to hit because I knew even if I gently touched him he would go in the gravel.

"In my pocket I had the advantage of knowing where my teammate was in terms of set-up so I kind of knew where I could attack him and where he was faster than me.

"I tried not to be traffic for him in the first few laps, but Alain was putting pressure on us and once I got a clear opportunity I went by. From then on it was just a question of bringing a great car home."

Menu was the best-placed of the front-wheel drive cars in a strong third, finishing less than two seconds behind Porteiro. He also had a comfortable margin over Schnitzer Motorsport's Augusto Farfus, who climbed from eighth on the grid.

Farfus's teammate, Jorg Muller, made amends for spinning into the gravel early in qualifying by climbing from 15th to fifth, passing all of the SEATs along the way. Behind him was the SEAT turbodiesel of Gabriele Tarquini, whose sixth place further extended his lead at the top of the championship.

James Thompson claimed the best result yet for the N.Technology Honda Accord Euro R with seventh place after running fifth in the early stages, holding off SEAT's Yvan Muller. The Frenchman will now start this afternoon's second race from reverse grid pole.

Rob Huff slipped to ninth in the second Chevy, finishing ahead of Rickard Rydell's SEAT. Behind them, Nicola Larini claimed 11th place after being sent to the back of the grid for running non-homologated racewear.

Defending champion Andy Priaulx was 15th, last of the works cars, after spending much of the race scrapping with the two SEATs of Tiago Monteiro and Jordi Gene.

In the Independents' Trophy, Sergio Hernandez, who had been sent to the back of the grid for not wearing fireproof socks during qualifying, came through to take an impressive class win ahead of Franz Engstler.

Pierre-Yves Corthals claimed third, while defending champion Stefano d'Aste crashed out of the race on the last lap after a clash with Wiechers-Sport's Olivier Tielemans.

Pos  Driver                Car                  Time
 1.  Alessandro Zanardi    BMW 320si            21:55.769
 2.  Felix Porteiro        BMW 320si            +   0.825
 3.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet Lacetti    +   1.707
 4.  Augusto Farfus        BMW 320si            +   9.476
 5.  Jorg Muller           BMW 320si            +  12.184
 6.  Gabriele Tarquini     SEAT Leon TDI        +  15.840
 7.  James Thompson        Honda Accord Euro R  +  16.738
 8.  Yvan Muller           SEAT Leon TDI        +  17.577
 9.  Robert Huff           Chevrolet Lacetti    +  17.842
10.  Rickard Rydell        SEAT Leon TDI        +  19.573
11.  Nicola Larini         Chevrolet Lacetti    +  25.390
12.  Tiago Monteiro        SEAT Leon TDI        +  30.246
13.  Jordi Gene            SEAT Leon TDI        +  31.226
14.  Andy Priaulx          BMW 320si            +  31.537
15.  Sergio Hernandez      BMW 320si            +  32.234
16.  Franz Engstler        BMW 320si            +  32.351
17.  Pierre-Yves Corthals  SEAT Leon            +  36.882
18.  Tom Coronel           SEAT Leon            +  37.448
19.  Oliver Tielemans      BMW 320si            +  37.576
20.  Andrei Romanov        BMW 320si            +  41.514
21.  Jaap Van Lagen        Lada 110             +  42.026
22.  Michal Matejovsky     SEAT Leon            +  52.935
23.  Alexander Lvov        Honda Accord Euro R  +  55.257
24.  Andrey Smetsky        Honda Accord Euro R  +1:56.836
25.  Stefano D'Aste        BMW 320si            +   1 lap

Retirements:

     Driver                Car                  Laps
     Viktor Shapovalov     Lada 110             4
     Ibrahim Okyay         BMW 320si            3

Fastest lap: Porteiro, 2:10.108, on lap 10