» WTCC: Tarquini creates history with Race 1 win

With victory in the opening race at the Slovakia Ring, Gabriele Tarquini has secured Honda’s first win since its return to the FIA World Touring Car Championship, leading a podium whitewash for the Japanese manufacturer with Tiago Monteiro and Norbert Michelisz completing the podium.

The Italian veteran has become the first driver in the history of the FIA WTCC to win for three manufacturers, in addition to winning in each year since the championship was re-formed in 2005.

With another bumper crowd in attendance at the challenging circuit, The Honda trio continued their dominance of qualifying with a formation 1-2-3 finish at the end of the opening ten-lap race.

The race’s rolling start saw the three Hondas set off in their grid order, and it remained that way for the rest of the race, despite Michelisz giving Monteiro a hard time for second place, while the Hungarian came under an equally stern attack from the RML Chevrolet of former champion Yvan Muller.

After making up four placed from his tenth-placed starting position, Tom Coronel finally pressured his BMW by the Bamboo Engineering Chevrolet of James Nash on the penultimate lap to claim fifth place, while Nash claimed the Independent Trophy win with his sixth-placed result.

Morocco racewinner Michel Nykjær earned more points with a seventh-placed finish in his NIKA Chevrolet, ahead of Alex MacDowall and Pepe Oriola, whose SEAT was the only one to finish in the top-ten.

One of the highlights of the race was a thrilling scrap for tenth place, which was ultimately resolved in Mehdi Bennani’s favour on the penultimate lap when he got by Stefano D’Aste. The Italian was then outdragged to the finish line by fellow BMW runner Fredy Barth, who beat D’Aste home by just five-thousandths of a second. James Thompson shadowed the trio in his LADA Granta, finishing a further four-tenths behind.

Tom Chilton was one driver who had a disastrous race. After mangling his RML Chevrolet in the morning’s warm-up session when he hit the wall, the Englishman’s race lasted little more than a lap. After making contact with Barth at Turn 3, he then spun into retirement at Turn 6 on the second lap.

Reigning champion Rob Huff also had a race to forget. After copping a ten-place grid penalty for the opening race, the Englishman gained four placed in the opening lap to move into thirteenth, but then lost all of those positions when his Münnich Motorsport SEAT ran wide at Turn 1 on the fourth lap.

2013 FIA WTCC Race of Slovakia – Race 1 Final Classification (10 laps):

	Driver	Team	Result	YIT
1.	Gabriele Tarquini	Castrol Honda Civic WTCC	22:18.761
2.	Tiago Monteiro	Castrol Honda Civic WTCC	+ 1.202
3.	Norbert Michelisz	Zengõ Motorsport Honda Civic WTCC	+ 1.616
4.	Yvan Muller	RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 5.091
5.	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport BMW 320TC	+ 5.975
6.	James Nash	Bamboo Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 7.748	Y
7.	Michel Nykjær	NIKA Racing Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 9.760	Y
8.	Alex MacDowall	Bamboo Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	+ 10.078	Y
9.	Pepe Oriola	Tuenti Racing Team SEAT León WTCC	+ 14.055	Y
10.	Mehdi Bennani	Scuderia Proteam BMW 320TC	+ 19.374	Y
11.	Fredy Barth	Wiechers-Sport BMW 320TC	+ 21.434	Y
12.	Stefano D’Aste	PB Sport BMW 320TC	+ 21.479	Y
13.	James Thompson	LADA Sport Granta	+ 21.837
14.	Darryl O’Young	ROAL Motorsport BMW 320TC	+ 24.891	Y
15.	Fernando Monje	Campos Racing Team SEAT León WTCC	+ 25.937	Y
16.	Marc Basseng	Münnich Motorsport SEAT León WTCC	+ 27.197
17.	Robert Huff	Münnich Motorsport SEAT León WTCC	+ 27.507
18.	Charles Ka-Ki Ng	Liqui Moly Engstler BMW 320TC	+ 36.500	Y
19.	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Engstler BMW 320TC	+ 41.278	Y
20.	Mikhail Kozlowskiy	LADA Sport Granta	+ 1 lap
21.	René Münnich	Münnich Motorsport SEAT León WTCC	+ 2 laps	Y
	Not Classified		Result
DNF.	Tom Boardman	Special Tune Racing SEAT León WTCC	6 laps	Y
DNF.	Tom Chilton	RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	1 lap