Photo: WTCC Media

Yvan Muller does the double at Monza

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Yvan Muller lead a Chevrolet 1-2-3 at Monza in an action packed race at Monza in which the French driver was nearly taken out on the second lap.

There were dramas before the start with Pepe Oriola suffering with a mechanical issue on his SEAT León and didn’t make the grid, instead starting from the pit lane. Lukoil SEAT driver Aleksei Dudukalo, also running the new SEAT engine, also stopped on the circuit as the cars went out to the grid.

Therefore Rydell, despite starting sixth, had a clear line of sight ahead of him with Oriola and Dudukalo missing, but bogged down at the start and was swamped by the works Chevrolets.

Coronel took off from row three in the rear-wheel drive BMW of ROAL Motorsport and was up to second by the first corner behind pole sitter Norbert Michelisz in the Zengõ BMW.

Into turn 1, Alain Menu was tapped from behind into a slide but managed to hold the car and keep his position, but on to the next lap he was on the outside with Yvan Muller having had a good run at him through Parabolica. As they headed into the first corner, Huff was right behind Muller ready to draft past Menu as well when he ran into the back of Muller, knocking hthe Frenchman into a spin.

Tarquini was caught up in the melee and spun out and retired with suspension failure, whilst the Chevrolets regrouped with Muller now in fifth with Menu and Huff behind.

At the front, Michelisz was able to hold off Tom Coronel until the Dutch driver was passed on lap seven by Muller, who had worked his way past the Bamboo Chevrolet of MacDowall and Stefano D’Aste’s Wiechers-Sport BMW, with Menu close in tow.

Muller passed Michelisz into Ascari, with the Hungarian rapidly losing ground after hitting a bird on the circuit, falling back to finish in eighth place.

Menu kept Muller honest on the final two laps, but was unable to stop Muller from winning the second race of the season and completing his third career double victory in a race weekend.

Stefano D’Aste finished fifth and won the independents’ class ahead of Franz Engstler and Alex MacDowall.

The next race is at Valencia on 1st April.