Photo: WTCC Media

Huff wins race one at Okayama

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Rob Huff secured victory in a wet first race at Okayama from BMW’s Andy Priaulx, with championship leader Yvan Muller in third.

The rain started falling soon after the morning warm-up session, necessitating a start behind the safety car extending the race distance to 16 laps.

The race started on lap three, and two separate multiple car incidents saw retirements for Tiago Monteiro and Fredy Barth, whilst the other cars involved were able to continue with light damage.

The rain suited the front-wheel drive cars, and Huff was fast from the start in the Chevrolet Cruze, passing Augusto Farfus on the first green flag lap. Then followed a scrap with fellow Brit Andy Priaulx for two laps, getting the better of the BMW on lap five to take the lead and was uncatchable, going on to win his second race of the season.

Gabriele Tarquini in the SR-Sport SEAT León was also working his way up the order in the early stages, but whilst battling Augusto Farfus for third, slid wide and tapped the barrier. Tarquini was able to continue and went on to finish seventh when Michel Nykjaer in the sister SUNRED car let Tarquini past on the final lap.

Chevrolet’s Yvan Muller made good progress, working his way up the order steadily to third place by lap eight, where he held station behind title rival Andy Priaulx for the last half of the race. The result means Priaulx cuts the championship lead by just three points to 22, whilst Tarquini drops to 38 points behind, but will benefit from starting on the front row for race two.

Robert Dahlgren, starting 24th after an engine change in the morning, finished an impressive tenth place, but as the Volvo isn’t homologated to FIA specifications, the final point goes to local driver Yukinori Taniguchi. Taniguchi was also the winner in the independents’ class, helping secure a 1-2 result in the category for bamboo-engineering with Darryl O’Young finishing second.

The top SEAT was Norbert Michelisz in the Zengo-Dension entry in fifth. The SUNRED SEAT of Michel Nykjaer will start on pole for race two alongside Tarquini, with Colin Turkington third in the BMW for the standing start.