Yvan Muller has put his victory in the opening FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) race in Vila Real down to the ‘best worst start’ of his career, after a slow getaway spared him from the worst of the damage in a first lap pile-up.
Muller started from sixth at the initial start, but a poor getaway dropped him outside of the top ten within a matter of corners.
That ultimately paid dividends for the Hyundai driver, as an accident involving the leading Volkswagens of Rob Huff and Mehdi Bennani caused a pile-up which involved the entire field.
Although Muller was also caught up, the damage to his car was repairable in the two-hour delay, and he ended up starting from the front at the restart as the top five drivers all sustained too much damage to their cars to restart.
In the end that allowed Muller to control the restarted race from the front and give him a second win of the season for his YMR team.
“I don’t know how it happened exactly at the front because I did my best worst start of my career,” admitted Muller. “I missed my start and that was lucky for me because I was not in the pack.”
Muller admits that as a team owner he is thinking about team-mate Thed Björk’s car and how it can be repaired for Sunday’s remaining two races.
“I only have one car to repair and pay for tonight instead of two. But yes, Thed’s car is quite damaged. The boys have already started work on it. I believe they will spend all night working on it, but I’m sure they will fix it.
“Yes, this is a victory, I’ll take it of course. It’s important for the points. But I would like to think of Rob [Huff] and Mehdi [Bennani].
“They were the fastest today and they should probably be on the podium, but unfortunately racing is as it is.
“It’s a victory, but not a real one.”