Yvan Muller dominates race one in Valencia

Yvan Muller has continued his winning streak to take his third straight win with the Chevrolet Cruze, finishing ahead of SEAT’s Gabriele Tarquini who was troubled throughout by Tom Coronel’s BMW 320 TC.

At the rolling start, Muller led the way into the first corner ahead of Tarquini, whilst Pepe Oriola had a good run from row two but was passed down the inside into Turn 1 by Rob Huff’s Chevrolet Cruze.

In the mid pack, Mehdi Bennani, who had started 15th in the Proteam Racing BMW was spun around at Turn 5 and dropped to the back of the pack.

Alain Menu dispatched Michelisz’s BMW for sixth on lap two whilst an error for Stefano D’Aste in the Wiechers-Sport BMW at Turn 6 saw the Italian drop down the order, and would be in an almost race long battle with countryman Alberto Cerqui’s ROAL BMW till the final few laps, when he was able to pass both Cerqui and James Nash’s Ford Focus to finish in 11th.

Mehdi Bennani battled back to 14th place, with his hardest pass actually being his own team-mate Isaac Tutumlu.

Aleksei Dudukalo’s Lukoil Racing SEAT pulled out of eighth place on Lap 5 and into the pits, rejoining on the final lap as the team worked on the Russian’s suspension to make sure things were repaired and ready for his third place start in race two.

Alain Menu passed Pepe Oriola for fifth on the same lap, and went on to cross the line just three-tenths of a second behind Rob Huff at the finish.

Muller however, pulled away from the battling duo of Gabriele Tarquini and Tom Coronel. With the two fighting each other, the Italian soon ended up leading a train of six cars at the finish.

Race two takes place at 17:20 CET, with Stefano D’Aste set to start on pole ahead of Alain Menu on the reversed grid.