» WTCC China: Muller holds off Turkington for Race 1 win

Chevrolet driver Alain Menu has held off persistent attacks from the BMW of Colin Turkington to claim his fifth win of the 2011 season and keep his slim championship hopes alive by finishing ahead of his team-mates Robert Huff and Yvan Muller, who completed the top-four finishers.

Huff’s third place means he trims the championship lead of Muller by a further two points.

Despite the circuit’s extremely tight first corner, the entire field managed to scramble through the first corner at the race’s rolling start, which pole-sitter Menu led from Huff and Turkington.

The tight track layout was largely suited to the BMWs – unless you were Norbert Michelisz (more on him later) – who were better able to put their power down exiting the slower corners.

And it was little surprise to see Turkington swarming all over the back of Huff in the opening laps as he set about trying to fulfil his pre-race prediction that he would win the race.

He tried a lunge on Huff during the fourth lap, but was aggressively held off by the Chevrolet driver. Ten laps later and with Huff’s tyres starting to go off, Turkington threw it up the inside at Turn 1, and gave Huff the choice of surrendering the position or some serious panel damage.

Almost instantly, Turkington closed down the gap to Menu, and the rest of the race saw an exciting battle for the lead. Ultimately, Turkington’s hopes of a final-lap pass were dashed when the pair came across the stranded Chevrolet of Yukinori Taniguchi, who crashed out on the back straight when his front suspension failed.

Huff took a comfortable third, ahead of Muller, who was the first in a sequence of drivers to overtake Norbert Michelisz, who started to rapidly tumble down the field as his rear brakes began to boil.

He lost two more places in rapid succession to Tom Coronel and Kristian Poulsen, his main rival in the Independent Trophy standings. Ultimately, the Hungarian finished a disappointing eleventh.

Mehdi Bennani (Proteam BMW) showed his morning warm-up speed was no fluke with a strong drive to finish seventh, while Tiago Monteiro was the only SUNRED driver to finish in the points, as the Spanish outfit struggled with tyre wear problems, being unable to put the power down exiting the slow corners.

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2011 FIA WTCC Race of China Final Classification (Race 1 – 25 laps):

	Driver	Team	Result
1.	Alain Menu	RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	28:05.718
2.	Colin Turkington	Wiechers-Sport BMW 320TC	+ 1.222
3.	Robert Huff	RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 5.065
4.	Yvan Muller	RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 8.005
5.	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport BMW 320TC	+ 9.010
6.	Kristian Poulsen	Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320TC	+ 9.921
7.	Mehdi Bennani	Scuderia Proteam BMW 320TC	+ 15.487
8.	Tiago Monteiro	SUNRED SR León 1.6T	+ 22.630
9.	Robert Dahlgren	Polestar Volvo C30 1.6T ‘Drive’	+ 26.204
10.	Javier Villa García	Scuderia Proteam BMW 320TC	+ 27.118
11.	Norbert Michelisz	Zengõ-Dension Team BMW 320TC	+ 28.291
12.	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320TC	+ 28.539
13.	Darryl O’Young	Bamboo Engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 38.072
14.	Michel Nykjær	SUNRED SR León 1.6T	+ 53.157
15.	Aleksei Dudukalo	Lukoil-SUNRED SR León 1.6T	+ 59.011
16.	Charles Ka-Ki Ng	DeTeam KK Motorsport BMW 320TC	+ 1:11.155
17.	Pepe Oriola	SUNRED SR León 1.6T	1 lap behind
18.	Fabio Fabiani	Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320si	1 lap behind
19.	Philip Ma	Scuderia Proteam BMW 320si	1 lap behind
20.	Yukinori Taniguchi	Bamboo Engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	2 laps behind
21.	Fredy Barth	Swiss Racing SR León 1.6T	4 laps behind

	NOT CLASSIFIED
NCF.	Gabriele Tarquini	Lukoil-SUNRED SR León 1.6T	10 laps behind

	FASTEST LAP
	Robert Huff	RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	1:06.333