Porto, Race 1: Muller keeps his cool in the heat

Muller beats Chilton in race one

In the heat of Porto, Yvan Muller took yet another victory – his fifth of the season –to further extend his lead in the Drivers’ Championship.

After qualifying on pole position, Muller took a lights-to-flag win ahead of his RML teammate Tom Chilton, who finished second. The top four was an all-Chevrolet affair, with Michel Nykjaer

finishing third and Pepe Oriola fourth. Nykjaer was also the highest-placed finisher in the Yokohama Trophy.

After Tiago Montiero pulled up with turbocharger failure in Free Practice yesterday, Gabriele Tarquini suffered the same fate in the other Castrol Team Honda car. As some comfort for the team, Monteiro - competing in front of a large home crowd - rewarded the fans by recovering from 17th to ninth.

Besides Tarquini, several other drivers failed to finish the race. Norbert Michelisz made contact with the wall on the second lap and pulled up, while a bizarre incident on lap 9 saw the BMW of Franz Engstler make contact with the rear of a marshal’s pickup truck that was on its way to recover Tarquini’s car. Fredy Barth then spun while trying to avoid Engstler’s car and the pickup, which brought out the safery car for two laps.

Key moments
Start – Michelisz and Nykjaer make contact on the way to Turn 1
Lap 1 – Tarquini and Oriola pass Michelisz
Lap 1 – Boardman outbrakes himself and hit Bennani
Lap 2 – Michelisz makes contact with the wall at Turn 13
Lap 4 – Ng passes Karamyshev for 19th
Lap 5 – Nykjaer pressures Chilton
Lap 8 – White smoke comes from Tarquini’s car and he stops at Turn 13
Lap 9 – Monteiro pressures Nash
Lap 9 – Engstler hits a marshal’s vehicle, Barth spins; the Safety car is deployed
Lap 11 – the race resumes
Lap 12 – Coronel and D’Aste pass Basseng for seventh and eighth
Lap 12 - Monteiro passes Nash and then Basseng to finish 9th
Lap 12 – Boardman hits the wall at Turn 10