WTCR: Huge Crash Thwarts Vila Real Race 1

Rob Huff and Volkswagen teammate Mehdi Bennani locked out the front row, but it was Bennani who got a better start than Huff, running side by side through the first sequence of corners.

However, as Huff appeared to get ahead approaching the first braking point, the 2 made contact at turn 5, pitching Huff sideways at full speed.

Huff hit the outside Armco hard, before ricocheting back into the path of Norbert Michelisz, with Bennani's car landing on top of Huff, blocking the road.

From then it was a chain reaction, with the entire field plowing into the back of the crashed trio, with a fire also breaking out on Thed Bjork's Hyundai i30 N.  

A 2 hour red flag period ensued, with a massive job for the marshals to recover all the cars and repair the barriers. A total of 8 cars were written off in the accident.

Muller was only able to survive the crash because he had made a dreadful start in his Hyundai.

This means that with this win, Muller retakes the championship lead.

Full Results:

1	Yvan Muller	Hyundai
2	Esteban Guerrieri	Honda	2.060
3	Pepe Oriola	Seat	10.596
4	Gabriele Tarquini	Hyundai	12.925
5	Jean-Karl Vernay	Audi	13.926
6	Aurélien Comte	Peugeot	14.186
7	Benjamin Lessennes	Honda	16.696
8	Nathanaël Berthon	Audi	19.937
9	Gordon Shedden	Audi	20.169
10	Frederic Vervisch	Audi	20.678
11	Fabrizio Giovanardi	Alfa Romeo	21.728
12	Mato Homola	Peugeot	22.668
13	Edgar Florindo	Seat	50.040
14	Norbert Nagy	Seat	50.451
15	Zsolt David Szabo	Seat	1'05.510
16	Aurelien Panis	Audi	3 Laps
17	Denis Dupont	Audi	5 Laps
18	José Rodrigues	Honda	6 Laps
19	Tom Coronel	Honda	8 Laps
20	Norbert Michelisz	Hyundai	12 Laps
21	Rob Huff	Volkswagen	13 Laps
22	Mehdi Bennani	Volkswagen	13 Laps
23	Yann Ehrlacher	Honda	13 Laps
24	Thed Björk	Hyundai	13 Laps
25	John Filippi	Seat	13 Laps
26	James Thompson	Honda	13 Laps
27	Gianni Morbidelli	Alfa Romeo	13 Laps