Rob Huff has taken his second win of the season and led home Chevrolet’s fourth 1-2-3 in the first World Touring Car Championship race of the day at the Salzburgring in Austria.
Click here for the full Round 11 Results.
Huff held on to the lead from the rolling start and survived the entire 14 lap encounter, despite the intense pressure from behind from Championship leader and Chevrolet team-mate Yvan Muller. Alain Menu completed the podium finishers.
Every lap, Muller closed up to the #2 Chevrolet Cruze but Huff defended and forced Muller to the outside and the Frenchman was unable to make a move for the race lead. Menu also closed up on both cars ahead but he couldn’t take advantage of the fighting team-mates.
The trio of Chevrolet’s were pulling away from the rest of the pack, which was led by the Lukoil Racing Team SEAT Leon of Gabriele Tarquini, who had the SunRed SR Leon 1.6T car of Tiago Monteiro and top Yokohama Independent runner Alex MacDowall for company.
The main incident happened half way through the race after the Special Tuning Racing SEAT Leon of Darryl O’Young collided with the Wiechers-Sport BMW 320TC of Stefano D’Aste and the Hong Kong racer ended up in the gravel trap. The Safety Car was deployed for three laps while the #20 SEAT Leon was recovered.
Once the Safety Car was withdrawn, it was the same scenario as before with Huff under siege from Muller who in turn had to defend from Menu, while Tarquini and the rest of the field dropped back.
Alexey Dudukalo and Mehdi Bennani came together at the first chicane with two laps remaining and the Lukoil Racing Team SEAT Leon ended up the barriers, and the incident meant that the Zengo Motorsport BMW 320TC of Norbert Michelisz was delayed and this allowed Tom Coronel through and into eighth position.
With the #4 SEAT Leon in the barrier, the first chicane became a yellow flag zone until the end of the race.
At the end of the 14 lap race, Huff led home team-mates Muller and Menu with the chasing pack led by Tarquini, Monteiro, MacDowall, Monteiro’s SEAT Tuenti Racing Team team-mate Pepe Oriola, Coronel, Michelisz and the Team Aon Ford Focus of James Nash.
Huff has closed the gap to Muller in the Championship to 22 points with Menu dropping to third in the standings, with Tarquini securing fourth with his fourth place finish.