Esteban Guerrieri takes Suzuka opener and points lead

Esteban Guerrieri secured his third victory of the World Touring Car Cup season in the opening race at Suzuka to move back to the head of the championship standings.

After a raft of penalties changed the grid for the opening race, Guerrieri had started from pole in his Honda Civic Type R TCR, with main rivals Norbert Michelisz and Yvan Muller both starting well down the order

When the lights went out, Guerrieri looked to defend from Niels Langeveld on the run to turn one, but that saw the pole-sitter come under pressure from Frédéric Vervisch as the Audi man looked to go around the outside.

A small wobble for Guerrieri through turn two allowed Langeveld to sneak through into the lead, although the Audi man would then run wide through the final corner at the end of lap two – allowing Guerrieri back into P1.

Further back down the order, points leader Michelisz had slipped outside the top 20 after his qualifying penalty, with PWR Racing driver Mikel Azcona and Münnich Motorsport’s Néstor Girolami also struggling to make much progress from the tail end of the grid.

Yvan Muller however was flying in the Lynk & Co, moving up into the top 15 by lap six after getting ahead of Lynk & Co Cyan Racing team-mate Andy Priaulx, and then making up another place when Benjamin Leuchter ran wide at the final corner and was swamped by the cars behind.

The safety car would then be deployed at the end of lap seven after Vervisch suffered a puncture at turn one and dropped out of third place, which left Guerrieri leading Langeveld and KCMG driver Tiago Monteiro – who had been due to start from pole.

The action resumed on lap ten, with the top two immediately breaking away from the fight for third behind as Monteiro found himself defending from Thed Björk and Volkswagen driver Johan Kristoffersson.

Björk had a look through turn two on the following lap but couldn’t get the nose of his Lynk & Co up the inside of the Honda and had to hold position.

There were no such problems for Muller however, who was continuing his charge through the field and was just outside the top ten by the end of lap 17 after getting ahead of nephew Yann Ehrlacher into eleventh.

Michelisz was also now running inside the top 15 in his Hyundai but was struggling to make too much progress from 17th on the grid in the i30 N TCR.

As a result, Nicky Catsburg was allowed through to try and attack Andy Priaulx and contact between the pair going into turn one on lap 22 when the Lynk & Co man tried to defend his position saw Priaulx go off into the barriers.

Michelisz immediately moved back ahead of Catsburg before the safety car came back out.

It soon became clear that Priaulx’s car wouldn’t be recovered in time for the action to resume, leaving Guerrieri to take victory behind the safety car from Langeveld, who secured his first podium finish in the series with second place.

Monteiro took third ahead of Björk, with Kristoffersson and Jean-Karl Vernay rounding out the top six.

Gabriele Tarquini was lead Hyundai in seventh ahead of the Alfa Romeos of Kevin Ceccon and Ma Quinghua, with Rob Huff rounding out the top ten.

Muller had to settle for eleventh place, with Michelisz in 13th and both Azcona and Girolami failing to score.

It means Guerrieri now leads Michelisz by 13 points ahead of race two at 10:00 local time on Sunday.