Moscow WTCC: Tarquini wins, Lada takes 1-2-4 in wet Race 1

The 2009 champion drove from ninth to first to also score the first win for the Lada Vesta in the WTCC, followed across the finish line by team-mate and Race 2 pole-sitter Nicky Catsburg.

The three Ladas started eighth, ninth and tenth for the opening race courtesy of the reversed grid, while Honda’s Tiago Monteiro started from pole in the Honda Civic ahead of the two Citroens of Mehdi Bennani and Yvan Muller.

As the field headed out on to the formation lap, the rain returned to the Moscow Raceway circuit, forcing a 15-minute delay allowing the teams to change to wet tyres.

When the race was restarted, Monteiro led the way into Turn 1, with Muller moving up to second in the factory Citroen.

But it soon became clear the Honda was still struggling with its wet set-up, with the Portuguese driver falling down the order.

As such, Muller was leading the race ahead of Bennani and team-mate Jose Maria Lopez at the end of the first lap, but Tarquini was already up to fourth and was showing strong pace in the wet conditions.

Tarquini passed Lopez at the final corner at the end of lap two, with minor contact made between them, an incident which remains under investigation, while the Italian’s Lada’s team-mates Catsburg and Hugo Valente were also working their way forward, with Catsburg up to fifth by the end of lap three.

Tarquini overtook Bennani’s privateer Citroen on lap three and set about chasing his friend and former team-mate Yvan Muller for the lead, taking the position from the Frenchman at the end of lap five.

From that point on, the Italian went on to build up to an eight second lead in the slippery conditions.

Muller made it much harder for Catsburg to pass, holding off the Dutchman for several laps, before the 28-year-old finally made it past the four-time champion on lap nine.

However, Catsburg had no time to close down the gap to teammate Tarquini for the finish.

Lopez lost fourth to the other Lada of Valente, and the Frenchman had to settle for that spot, the gap to Muller too large to overcome in the final laps.

Lopez finished fifth and extended his points lead over Bennani to 102 points, with Muller closing to 110 points off in the standings in third.

The best-placed Honda in the race was that of Monteiro, who crossed the line sixth ahead of team-mate Rob Huff, with the top Chevrolet that of Munnich Motorsport’s James Thompson, who finished in eighth position and was also the first of the independents’ trophy drivers.

The 17-lap main race follows with Lada well placed for another strong result, starting 1-2-3 on the grid with Catsburg on pole ahead of Tarquini and Valente.

Opening race results:

Pos	Driver	Car	Time/Gap
1	Gabriele Tarquini	Lada Vesta WTCC	29:39.384
2	Nicky Catsburg	Lada Vesta WTCC	+4.782
3	Yvan Muller	Citroen C-Elysée WTCC	+16.062
4	Hugo Valente	Lada Vesta WTCC	+23.683
5	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen C-Elysée WTCC	+28.092
6	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Civic WTCC	+28.803
7	Rob Huff	Honda Civic WTCC	+29.266
8	James Thompson	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	+30.164
9	Mehdi Bennani	Citroen C-Elysée WTCC	+35.037
10	Norbert Michelisz	Honda Civic WTCC	+43.985
11	John Filippi	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	+47.000
12	Tom Coronel	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	+51.753
13	Fredrik Ekblom	Volvo S60 WTCC	+53.227
14	Tom Chilton	Citroen C-Elysée WTCC	+59.620
15	Ferenc Ficza	Honda Civic WTCC	+1:01.302
16	Grégoire Demoustier	Citroen C-Elysée WTCC	+1:04.878
R	Thed Björk	Volvo S60 WTCC