Curitiba 2007: Muller heads BMW 1-2-3.

Jorg Muller staved off a spirited last lap challenge from Andy Priaulx to triumph in the first round of the 2007 World Touring Car Championship at Curitiba, BMW duly living up to their qualifying pace by dominating the race.

Livening up an otherwise rather processional BMW demonstration at the front of the field, Muller led Priaulx and team-mate Augusto Farfus over the line, the trio some eight seconds up on fourth place Gabriele Tarquini in the first of the SEATs, who in turn led the best of the Chevrolets, that being of Rob Huff in fifth.

Despite the good result for Chevrolet though, it was an otherwise disastrous race for Huff's team-mates Alain Menu and Nicola Larini following a skirmish on the first corner that eliminated five drivers from the race.

Indeed, while the rolling start was always expected to make the getaway safer and more even, instead the field bunched together into the exceptionally turn one esses, the inevitable occurring as cars bumped into one another.

The chain reaction begun when Yvan Muller slipped down the inside of Nicola Larini, tipping the Lacetti into a spin and pitching him into Pierre-Yves Corthals, who in turn clipped the second Chevrolet of Alain Menu. James Thompson was also caught out as Larini slid across his bow and caused terminal suspension damage.

The ensuing fracas claimed yet more victims though, with the damaged Luca Rangoni coasting with a damaged left-front and being collected by Olivier Tielemans, the Dutchman's retirement signalling the end to the race for both Alfa Romeos.

With the field down to just 15 runners, Muller led the cars back around to the safety car ahead of Priaulx and Farfus. Farfus had led across the line, getting the hammer down more effectively than his team-mate, but after looking as though he eased off to let Muller through to avoid any kind of penalty, Priaulx saw his opportunity and dived down the inside.

With Tarquini now the closest competition to the BMWs after Felix Porteiro let his inexperience get to him to drop from fourth to eighth, Muller set about establishing a lead, a fact made all the easier when he caught Priaulx napping at the restart.

Eking his lead out to two seconds, Farfus began to hound a rather loose looking Priaulx for the first few laps but eventually began to slip behind his British rival as the race wore on.

Instead, Priaulx was making inroads into Muller's lead, the German complaining of problems with his rear suspension that was causing excessive tyre wear. It allowed the reigning champion to slice a two second gap down to nothing as they entered the final lap, the Brit darting either side of Muller down the home straight in a bid to force a mistake.

However, the short lap at Curitiba presents relatively few overtaking manoeuvres for those not feeling entirely brave and with Priaulx not willing to ruin the first race of the season he settled for second, leaving Muller as the delighted victor.

Farfus kept third place in a race where he never quite looked as threatening as he had done in practice, a long way up on Tarquini, who held onto fourth place from Huff, the Brit keeping a watching brief rather than ever really bothering the SEAT.

Tom Coronel began his season well with sixth place, the Dutchman having to fend off the attentions of Alex Zanardi towards the end of the race but doing so admirably in his semi-works Leon, while Yvan Muller rounded out the points scorers in eighth to also claim pole position for the second race. That position had been held by Porteiro for much of the race, only for the Spaniard to lose his BMW under braking on lap twelve and spin into retirement.

Jordi Gene was just outside the points in ninth, one place up on Pierre-Yves Corthals who embarked on an impressive drive to the front of the Independents pack after being involved in the first corner crash. His cause however was aided by mistakes for both Emmet O'Brien and Sergio Hernandez who both led the class before both spinning separately down to 13th and 14th respectively.