Photo: WTCC Media

Rob Huff holds off Muller to keep title hope alive

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Rob Huff kept Chevrolet team-mate Yvan Muller at bay in the first race at Macau to close up to 13 points of the Frenchman, with just 25 available in the final race.

The first start was aborted as several cars in the midfield were not lined up in their grid boxes, but on the second start Yvan Muller appeared to have his nose ahead as they headed into Mandarin, but a brave charge by Huff on the outside of the corner gave him the lead back.

Behind them, the outside line didn’t work out for SUNRED’s André Couto or Chevrolet’s Alain Menu, with both cars slamming into the wall with Menu breaking his front left suspension, and Couto spinning around and back into the front of the Chevrolet, marking the second time the two have made contact this weekend.

The safety car was called with the race restarting on lap five, but only briefly. Monteiro tried to out-brake Coronel into Lisboa and went down the escape road, whilst Proteam driver Mehdi Bennani tried to get a run on Bamboo’s Darryl O’Young coming out of the corner after making light contact on the way in, but as O’Young closed the door, O’Young was spun around and eliminated from the race, with Bennani continuing on to finish in ninth, passing Pepe Oriola on the final lap.

At the second restart, Muller fought Huff on every lap, having greater pace in the first sector, pressuring Huff into the Lisboa corner lap after lap until the end of the race but was unable to get ahead.

Aleksei Dudukalo, in his repaired SR León crashed out at Moorish Hill, which was managed by double-waved yellows for the last three laps of the race.

Michel Nykjaer took the win in the independents’ class, whilst Franz Engstler overtook Kristian Poulsen for second in the class and sixth overall two laps from the end. With Mehdi Bennani setting the fastest lap of the race and grabbing the extra point, Poulsen’s points lead in the independents’ trophy is now 21 points over Nykjaer with just 21 remaining, which means Poulsen has now won the independents’ title.

Huff’s seventh win of the season, his first since Portugal, sees him close the gap to 13 points before the final race of the day. Huff starts third for race two on the provisional reversed grid with Muller set to start as far back as eighth, though may gain a place if Couto’s car is worked on outside of parc ferme.