Photo: FIA media

Muller extends lead in race one

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Yvan Muller has taken the win in the first race at Monza today. The Frenchman took over the lead in the last lap from his main rival Gabriele Tarquini. Rickard Rydell took the last spot on the podium, after fighting of a last lap attack from Chevrolet man Nicola Larini.

At the start of the race, the chaos that was expected in the first chicane happened, when James Thompson and Felix Porteiro made contact and Thompson was spun round. The Honda driver flew over the grass to end up in the middle of the road in the first chicane, where he was collected by Felix Porteiro.

Thompson had to end his race at the spot, while Porteiro was able to drive back to the pits with a broken front suspension.

The chaos dropped Rob Huff back to twelfth position, and on the end of lap 1 he had a hard fight with Alessandro Zanardi over eleventh. The Brit took over the place and continued to work his way forward. On lap three he passed Tom Coronel for tenth.

Lap 4 saw the Chevrolet front runner Nicola Larini fight with Augusto Farfus over fourth place behind the SEAT’s. Farfus overtook Larini in the first chicane, but Larini took back the place in Variante Ascari.

Coming back to the first chicane to start lap 5, Tarquini took over the lead from Muller and Augusto Farfus lost another place to his team mate Andy Priaulx. One lap later the race was over for Augusto Farfus, as he had to park his car on the start/finish straight with an engine problem.

Coming out of the parabolica to start the last lap, Gabriele Tarquini made a small mistake, which allowed Yvan Muller to take over the lead, entering the first chicane.

At the same time, Rickard Rydell and Nicola Larini had a hard fight over third. They made contact and Rydell had to cut the chicane. He dropped back behind Muller and Tarquini to take take third.

Nicola Larini dropped back from fourth in the last corner to allow Rob Huff to take an extra point. Eventhough this didn’t quite work out, as Larini still finished one place ahead of Huff, he did manage to block Jordi Gene, so Huff finished in seventh, ahead of Gene.