Defiant start from Muller in defence of his World title

Yvan Muller had a strong start to the 2012 World Touring Car Championship, scoring one point less than the maximum possible 55 points during the weekend and leaves with an 18 point lead over Chevrolet team-mate Rob Huff.

The Frenchman passed Gabriele Tarquini in the first race twice to take victory, and a hard battle from ninth spot on the grid, although two cars ahead did not make the start, to win race two, after being spun on the second lap in an altercation involving Huff and the Tarquini’s SEAT, then recovering to pass Norbert Michelisz for the lead and hold off the other Chevrolet of Alain Menu for the win.

“For sure it’s best way to start the season,” said Muller. “Even if the second race was very tough, more tough than what I was suspecting. Great result for me of course and great result for Chevrolet.”

Rob Huff, second in the championship after this weekend, explained what happened on the second lap:
“We were going down the start-finish straight, Gabriele was pushing me, I was pushing Yvan, we got to the braking zone, I braked a little bit later than Yvan, touched the back of him and then I got a big hit from behind which put me in to the back of Yvan – at which point Yvan took off. I think could pretty much wave at him from the angle he was. It’s one of those things, it’s the first race of the year, but at the end of the day we survived it…got some good points, and forward we go.”

The stewards decided to impose a formal reprimand on Huff for the incident.

FIA World Touring Car Championship Standings after Monza