Yvan Muller has taken victory in the first World Touring Car Championship race of the season, fending off team-mate Rob Huff and Gabriele Tarquini to take the win.
Muller had to pass Tarquini twice to take the win – having passed Tarquini on the opening lap he had to do it all again after locking his brakes into the chicane on lap two. Giving the position back to the Italian, Muller then inherited the lead which he would not lose on lap four when Tarquini ran wide at the second Lesmo.
Huff was forced to carry out a damage limitation race after contact with team-mate Alain Menu meant that he dropped to fifth on the opening lap. However the Brit fought back during the race and battled with Rickard Rydell for third and then Tarquini to take second. Menu did not fare so well and was pitched into the gravel at the first Lesmo corner, placing him in 12th at the end of the opening tour. He would later recover to finish in seventh.
When asked if he thought he could have challenged for the win, Huff admitted that he felt he could not have taken the win. “Yvan’s very clever and when he’s on his own you can see he doesn’t use the kerbs,” said Huff. “Monza, as we saw with Gabriele and myself two years ago, is quite exciting when it comes to tyres on the last few laps! I could see that Yvan was playing it safe and he was waiting for me to catch him. We made a few mistakes on the last few laps and didn’t quite get there but I don’t think much would have changed.”
Tarquini admitted that he had endured engine troubles throughout the race which first began after qualifying on Saturday. “I’m happy to finish the race because it was the first time I did four or five consecutive laps,” said Tarquini. “I had a problem with the engine yesterday which we changed overnight. This morning it doesn’t work in the warm up so after the warm up we decided to change the main parts of the engine and in the end it works but not very well like yesterday in qualifying.”
Rydell finished in fourth after a strong race that saw him battling hard with his Chevrolet rivals. Tom Coronel took fifth, with Pepe Oriola finishing a career-best sixth and the winner of the Yokohama Trophy.
Menu finished in seventh, whilst Alex MacDowall was the best of the débutants this weekend in eighth. Norbert Michelisz and Alberto Cerqui completed the top ten.
The safety car was required once during the race when Isaac Tutumlu, on his WTCC début, spun out of the race on lap five. A number of incidents compromised the chances of several drivers – Stefano D’Aste, Charles Kaki Ng and Tiago Monteiro made contact at the chicane on the opening lap, forcing the latter out of the race.
Alexei Dudkalo had looked likely to finish in a career-best seventh until he slowed on the penulatimate lap with problems with his SEAT Leon WTCC car.