Muller wins race one from Michelisz

Yvan Muller held off a late surge from home favourite Norbert Michelisz to claim victory in the opening World Touring Car race at the Hungaroring.

The Frenchman protected his pole position advantage away from the start and seemed set to cruise to a third win as he gradually eased away from the field over the opening six laps.

Michelisz never allowed the gap to build past 1.2 seconds however and slowly began to reel Muller in over the final laps.

The pair headed into the final tour separated by just six tenths, but Muller ultimately had pace in hand and held on to claim his and RML Chevrolet’s third win of the season.

Michelisz, a winner at his home track last year, had to settle for second in the Zengo-run Honda Civic.

His works stablemate Gabriele Tarquini joined him on the rostrum in third after escaping from a multiple-car fight for podium’s final step.

Rob Huff in the Munnich-run SEAT had been pressuring Tarquini for third, but was forced onto the defensive as the ROAL and Proteam BMWs of Tom Coronel and Mehdi Bennani closed rapidly.

Huff withstood repeated attacks from Coronel, who eventually tried too much and got stuck on the outside of Huff at Turn 11 two laps from the end.

Bennani was able to slip by and take up the chase of Huff, but the Briton hung on to match his best result of the year in fourth.

Tom Chilton in the second RML Chevrolet had tagged onto the back of the group, having earlier been passed by Coronel and Bennani, but was not able to find a way past the BMWs and had to settle for seventh.

The result could yet change, with Coronel and his team-mate Darryl O’Young under investigation following a lap-one crash which ultimately put five cars out, including Marrakech winner Pepe Oriola, Honda’s Tiago Monteiro and the LADA of James Thompson.

Results – 12 laps:
 
Pos Driver              Team/Car             Time/Gap
  1. Yvan Muller         RML Chevrolet        23m17.125s
  2. Norbert Michelisz   Zengo Honda          + 0.617s
  3. Gabriele Tarquini   Honda                + 12.670s
  4. Rob Huff            Munnich SEAT         + 13.573s
  5. Mehdi Bennani       Proteam BMW          + 13.861s
  6. Tom Coronel         ROAL BMW             + 14.133s
  7. Tom Chilton         RML Chevrolet        + 15.021s
  8. Alex MacDowall      Bamboo Chevrolet     + 17.343s
  9. James Nash          Bamboo Chevrolet     + 18.073s
 10. Michel Nykjaer      Nika Chevrolet       + 18.465s
 11. Marc Basseng        Munnich SEAT         + 23.782s
 12. Hugo Valente        Campos SEAT          + 28.395s
 13. Franz Engstler      Engstler BMW         + 29.116s
 14. Stefano D’Aste      PB BMW               + 30.474s
 15. Charles Ng          Engstler BMW         + 34.221s
 16. Fernando Monje      Campos SEAT          + 35.498s
 17. Mikhail Kozlovskiy  Lada                 + 39.708s
 18. Rene Munnich        Munnich SEAT         + 44.193s
 
Retirements:
 
    Darryl O’Young      ROAL BMW               5 laps
     Tom Boardman        Special Tuning SEAT    3 laps
     Tiago Monteiro      Honda                  1 lap
     Fredy Barth         Wiechers BMW           1 lap
     James Thompson      Lada                   0 laps
     Pepe Oriola         Tuenti SEAT            0 laps
 

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/other-news/touring-cars/wtcc/muller-wins-race-one-from-michelisz

Brian Gubby André Guelfi Miguel Ángel Guerra Roberto Guerrero