Rob Huff enjoyed a perfect start to life as a Honda driver in the FIA World Touring Car Championship by winning the Opening Race at the WTCC JVCKENWOOD Race of France at Circuit Paul Ricard.
Starting from second on the grid under the new-for-2016 reverse-grid format for the first race at each WTCC weekend, Huff made a better start than polesitter Hugo Valente to take the lead. The 2012 WTCC champion quickly built a lead of two seconds over Citroën driver Mehdi Bennani on his way to winning on his first start for Honda.
While Bennani claimed WTCC Trophy honours, Honda enjoyed a great first race of 2016 with Norbert Michelisz taking third and Tiago Monteiro finishing fourth, the latter climbing from ninth place. The pair both got past LADA driver Valente with three laps to go, pushing the Frenchman down to fifth.
Defending champion José María López finished sixth for Citroën despite falling to 11th on the opening lap. He benefitted from a jump-start penalty for team-mate Yvan Muller, as well as a spin for Fredrik Ekblom and contact between Nicky Catsburg and Tom Coronel on lap five.
There was a further clash between the Dutch duo on the final lap, giving Thed Björk seventh in the first race for the Volvo S60 Polestar TC1. Gabriele Tarquini joined Ekblom in retirement after contact from Grégoire Demoustier, who was 10th.
The Main Race is scheduled to start at 17h15 local time.
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rob Huff | Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda | 16 laps |
| 2 | Mehdi Bennani | Sebastien Loeb Racing | Citroen | +2.184 |
| 3 | Norbert Michelisz | Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda | +6.737 |
| 4 | Tiago Monteiro | Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda | +7.911 |
| 5 | Hugo Valente | LADA Sport | Lada | +12.554 |
| 6 | Jose Maria Lopez | Citroen Total WTCC | Citroen | +12.955 |
| 7 | Thed Bjork | Polestar Cyan | Volvo | +22.162 |
| 8 | Nicky Catsburg | LADA Sport | Lada | +23.708 |
| 9 | Tom Coronel | ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet | +24.892 |
| 10 | Grégoire Demoustier | Sebastien Loeb Racing | Citroen | +25.738 |
| 11 | Tom Chilton | Sebastien Loeb Racing | Citroen | +26.249 |
| 12 | John Filippi | Campos Racing | Chevrolet | +26.908 |
| 13 | Yvan Muller | Citroen Total WTCC | Citroen | +40.095 |
| 14 | Rene Munnich | Munnich Motorsport | Chevrolet | +42.417 |
| 15 | Gabriele Tarquini | LADA Sport | Lada | DNF |
| 16 | Fredrik Ekblom | Polestar Cyan | Volvo | DNF |
| 17 | Ferenc Ficza | Zengo | Honda | DNS |
| 18 | Daniel Nagy | Zengo | Honda | DNS |