» WTCC Portugal: Menu wins opening race

A win in the opening World Touring Car Championship race at Porto has helped Alain Menu close the points gap to team-mate and championship leader Robert Huff, after the Swiss driver took a lights-to-flag victory as the RML Chevrolet squad locked out the podium.

The veteran Menu finished ahead of defending champion Yvan Muller and team-mate Huff in a formation finish for the all-conquering Chevrolet Cruze.

At the rolling start that greeted today’s first of two eleven-lap races, Menu led from the off with his team-mates behind, but Huff momentarily came under pressure when tapped by Gabriele Tarquini on the opening lap.

Tarquini’s contact allowed his fellow SEAT runner (and hometown hero) Tiago Monteiro to nip through for fourth place.

The opening lap also saw a collision between the SEATs of Fredy Barth and Aleksei Dudukalo. Barth appeared to be tapped into a spin by Javier Villa’s BMW, only to be collected by an unsighted Dudukalo, who was out on the spot. Barth managed to limp back to the pits for repairs.

The Barth-Villa incident was under investigation by the stewards, but Villa succeeded in avoiding a pit-lane penalty when he crashed out of the race on lap 7 as he tried to chase down Kristian Poulsen. The Spanish rookie hit the barriers at the Turn 7 chicane.

Behind the top-five, Tom Coronel finished as the best-placed BMW, while Robert Dahlgren finished seventh in his Volvo C30. The top-ten was completed by Norbert Michelisz – winner of the Independents’ Trophy category in this race – Michel Nykjær and Stefano D’Aste, in a race was not surprisingly devoid of any real overtaking.

D’Aste will start this afternoon’s race from pole position, and the Italian will be hoping he can take a fairytale victory on his return to the championship.

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2011 FIA WTCC Race of Portugal Final Classification (Race 1 – 11 laps):

	Driver	Team	Result
1.	Alain Menu	RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 11.697
2.	Yvan Muller	RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 1.262
3.	Robert Huff	RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 1.519
4.	Tiago Monteiro	SUNRED SR León 1.6T	+ 5.710
5.	Gabriele Tarquini	Lukoil-SUNRED SR León 1.6T	+ 10.457
6.	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport BMW 320TC	+ 12.237
7.	Robert Dahlgren	Polestar Volvo C30 1.6T ‘Drive’	+ 16.693
8.	Norbert Michelisz	Zengõ-Dension Team BMW 320TC	+ 17.256
9.	Michel Nykjær	SUNRED SR León 1.6T	+ 17.724
10.	Stefano D’Aste	Wiechers-Sport BMW 320TC	+ 18.232
12.	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320TC	+ 20.360
13.	Darryl O’Young	Bamboo Engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 25.778
14.	Pepe Oriola	SUNRED SR León 1.6T	+ 27.343
15.	Kristian Poulsen*	Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320TC	+ 48.801
16.	Yukinori Taniguchi	Bamboo Engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 55.046
17.	Mehdi Bennani**	Scuderia Proteam BMW 320TC	+ 56.084

	NOT CLASSIFIED
NF.	Javier Villa García	Scuderia Proteam BMW 320TC	6 laps
NC.	Fredy Barth	Swiss Racing SR León 1.6T	3 laps
NF.	Aleksei Dudukalo	Lukoil-SUNRED SEAT León 2.0 TDI	0 laps

	FASTEST LAP
	Alain Menu	RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	2:06.815

* Denotes a 30-second penalty applied post-race for cutting a chicane and failing to redress the advantage gained.
** Denotes a 30-second time penalty for causing an avoidable collision

[Original images via FIA WTCC Media]