WTCC: Loeb wins race 1 at Paul Ricard
Sebastien Loeb wins the race one of WTCC at Paul Ricard after he was dominant throughout whole race, leaving Yvan Muller five seconds behind. Jose Maria Lopez was third, while Ma Qing Hua on fourth confirmed Citroen Total WTCC’s domination.
Everybody who expected to see battle between Loeb and Muller in the first race was in mistake as Loeb was secure at top, but Muller had a challenging task to keep Jose Maria Lopez off as Argentinian looked very aggressive and always was near his main rival. It wasn’t so exciting race at all and is hugely expected to see more action in the second race.
Ma Qing Hua looked well but he didn’t want to risk too much and probably cause some damage to himself, but also for Lopez, while Tom Chilton kept his fifth place keeping Norbert Michelisz on sixth after Hungarian started very well and later managed to keep position in front of Tiago Monteiro who finished seventh and was best placed Honda driver.
Eighth place won Gabriele Tarquini and experienced Italian must be very happy with that as he started from behind. Mehdi Bennani moved up to ninth while last point won Jaap van Lagen, taking Lada out of total misery as Rob Huff had to retire and Nicky Catsburg stayed of points zone after he had to start from pit.
