Muller heads Huff in Chevrolet 1-2

Date published : 18 Jul 2010 - 11:56:06

Yvan Muller led Rob Huff home as Chevrolet dominated Sunday's first World Touring Car race at Brands Hatch.The championship leader controlled the race throughout, with Huff shadowing his team-mate all the way. Cruzes had locked out the top three after they organised themselves into formation at the start, but Alain Menu dropped down the order in the last two laps to improve his grid slot for race two.Turkington was easily the best of the independents and earned his spot on the outright podium when he passed Gabriele Tarquini's SEAT for fourth on the inside of Druids early on. Fourth became third when he started Menu's decline by driving around the outside at Clearways.Menu then filtered down the order, behind the SEATs of Tarquini and Tom Coronel, and Augusto Farfus's BMW. But the Swiss driver didn't get pole for the second race - that was claimed by Andy Priaulx, who raced through to eighth from 16th on the grid after taking a 10-place penalty for an engine change.Priaulx had earlier followed team-mate Farfus past Norbert Michelisz's SEAT exiting Surtees, and then dived down the inside of Tiago Monteiro's SEAT for eighth at Graham Hill Bend. The pair made contact in the corner and again on the following straight, but Priaulx eventually sealed the place on the inside at Hawthorn.Monteiro missed out on the reverse-grid pole after being passed by Priaulx, but only by a tenth of a second as both Menu and Priaulx slowed on the final lap. Michelisz completed the top 10 ahead of the SEATs of Jordi Gene and Fredy Barth, with Robert Dahlgren's Volvo 13th.Tom Boardman was the next best of the independents after Turkington, 14th on his one-off return to the series, just ahead of class regulars Franz Engstler and Kristian Poulsen.Caca Bueno was the race's only retirement. His Chevrolet Cruze expired with a dramatic engine fire on lap eight.Pos Driver Car Time/Gap 1. Yvan Muller Chevrolet 28m05.204s 2. Rob Huff Chevrolet + 0.296s 3. Colin Turkington BMW + 0.848s 4 Gabriele Tarquini SEAT + 2.615s 5. Tom Coronel SEAT + 3.158s 6. Augusto Farfus BMW + 4.357s 7. Alain Menu Chevrolet + 5.041s 8. Andy Priaulx BMW + 5.170s 9. Tiago Monteiro SEAT + 5.295s10. Norbert Michelisz SEAT + 5.505s11. Jordi Gene SEAT + 6.103s12. Fredy Barth SEAT + 6.460s13. Robert Dahlgren Volvo + 6.988s14. Tom Boardman SEAT + 9.405s15. Franz Engstler BMW + 9.602s16. Kristian Poulsen BMW + 10.148s17 Michel Nykjaer SEAT + 10.661s18. Sergio Hernandez BMW + 12.540s19. Harry Vaulkhard Chevrolet + 12.979s20. Stefano D'Aste BMW + 14.108s21. Mehdi Bennani BMW + 14.497s22. Tim Coronel BMW + 15.220s23. Darryl O'Young Chevrolet + 19.150sNot classified Caca Bueno Chevrolet 7 laps