Yvan Muller secured another win for himself and the fifteenth win of the season in just seventeen races for the RML run Chevrolet team – while Muller had it easy after moving into the lead on lap four, behind it was all fun and games, which ultimately saw Chevrolet team-mate Alain Menu finishing second and Tom Coronel in the ROAL Motorsport BMW 320TC third.
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It took two attempts to get the race underway but once the race had been started, Lukoil-SUNRED’s Gabriele Tarquini had moved from third on the grid and into the lead of the race, ahead of the Chevrolet’s of Muller and Rob Huff.
It wasn’t long before the bad luck which Huff used to have at the Ricardo Tormo circuit returned as he was spun out by Menu – this leaving the British driver at the tail of the field and facing an uphill task to recover any decent points.
Tarquini lead the field at the end of the opening lap and a battle between Tarquini and Muller started for the race lead, which changed hands on the fourth lap.
Behind the lead duo, the battle for fourth was heating up between Coronel and Tiago Monteiro in the SUNRED SEAT Leon, while down in the midfield, the Proteam Racing BMW 320TC of Mehdi Bennani and SUNRED’s Fredy Barth came together, Bennani was out on the spot while Barth recovered to the pits.
Both the major incidents – Huff and Menu and Bennani/Barth were under investigation and it was announced later that Menu had a drive-thru penalty for his part in the Huff/Menu incident. It was later announced that Menu had had his penalty revoked as replays showed that Monteiro had tapped Menu into Huff. It was announced later into the race that Monteiro was then under investigation for his part in the Menu/Huff incident.
Huff continued to work his way back up the field and soon found himself fifth after passing both Monteiro and the Proteam Racing BMW 320TC of Javier Villa in the same move, and while Huff drove off, Villa was moving ahead of Monteiro again and back into the top six.
After his disastrous qualifying session, the Polestar Racing Volvo C30 Drive of Robert Dahlgren was making progress up the field and worked his way into the top ten.
As the race entered its penultimate lap, Villa was right on the tail of Huff in his Chevrolet as it appeared that the RML car’s tyres had gone off more compared to his rival in the BMW.
At the flag, Muller secured the victory by 1.1s from Menu for another Chevrolet 1, 2 finish with Tom Coronel third and top BMW driver. Kristian Poulsen secured the honours in the Yokohama Independents Trophy and fourth overall.
The top ten was completed by Huff, Villa, Michelisz, Monteiro, Dahlgren and D’Aste. Heading into the final European race, Muller now leads the Championship by nine points from Huff while Poulsen has taken over the lead of the Yokohama Independents’ Trophy by three points from Michelisz.