Muller beats Huff in race one

Date published : 17 Jul 2011 - 11:37:34

Yvan Muller survived some late pressure to deny Rob Huff a home win in the first of today's World Touring Car Championship races at Donington Park.Muller started from pole and had enjoyed a relatively untroubled run for most of the race, but Huff was able to capitalise on some late traffic to close within range with a lap remaining.What had been a one-second gap briefly shrunk to almost nothing, but Muller was able to pull away again as the pair drove around the circuit for the final time. An error by Huff at the Esses put the result beyond doubt, and Muller went on to beat the Briton by 1.136s. Alain Menu was 2.7s further behind Huff in third to complete another Chevrolet 1-2-3.While the race was relatively uneventful up at the front, there was plenty going on in the midfield. Robert Dahlgren drove from the back of the field to eighth in his Volvo, despite almost behind launched off the rear of Kristian Poulsen's BMW along the way.It was also a busy race for Colin Turkington, who recovered from an early trip along the grass to become immersed in a multi-car battle for the minor points places. Another trip across the gravel while scrapping with Michel Nykjaer for seventh cost the Briton some more time, but he still managed to finish 10th for Wiechers BMW.Results - 13 laps:Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Yvan Muller Chevrolet 21m21.521s 2. Rob Huff Chevrolet + 1.136s 3. Alain Menu Chevrolet + 3.903s 4. Tom Coronel ROAL BMW + 8.708s 5. Gabriele Tarquini SUNRED SEAT + 9.299s 6. Franz Engstler Engstler BMW + 14.186s 7. Michel Nykjaer SUNRED SEAT + 18.974s 8. Robert Dahlgren Polestar Volvo + 19.191s 9. Kristian Poulsen Engstler BMW + 20.536s10. Colin Turkington Wiechers BMW + 28.804s11. Darryl O'Young Bamboo Chevrolet + 29.831s12. Pepe Oriola SUNRED SEAT + 29.966s13. Fredy Barth SUNRED SEAT + 34.093s14. Mehdi Bennani Proteam BMW + 34.526s15. Aleksei Dudukalo SUNRED SEAT + 39.419s16. Yukinori Taniguchi Bamboo Chevrolet + 1m07.938s17. Fabio Fabiani Proteam BMW + 1 lap18. Javier Villa Proteam BMW + 1 lapRetirements: Norbert Michelisz Zengo BMW 7 laps Tiago Monteiro SUNRED SEAT 4 laps