Muller bogged down from sixth on the grid at the first start and fell down the order, which turned out to be a blessing when the two front-row sitting Sébastien Loeb Racing Volkswagens of Rob Huff and Mehdi Bennani collided at Turn 2, with Bennani’s car launched into the air. The whole field behind began to pile into the accident, with Norbert Michelisz just managing to get past the accident but still suffered a hit on his BRC Racing Hyundai i30 N TCR.
The two SLR Volkswagens were destroyed and will not be repairable this weekend, while both drivers Rob Huff and Mehdi Bennani were immediately sent to the medical centre and onto the local hospital.
The barrier which Huff and Bennani crashed into was severely damaged, which meant the race took some time to be restarted. BRC worked hard to repair Michelisz’s car, but when the rollcage was confirmed as damaged, the team had to withdraw his car and Michelisz also was sent to the medical centre with an arm injury.
Cars that were unable to make the restart include championship leader Yann Ehrlacher, Thed Björk in the YMR Hyundai and the two SLR Volkswagens.
The race resumed at 18:15 local time with Muller on pole ahead of Esteban Guerrieri’s Honda and Gabriele Tarquini’s Hyundai.
From there, Muller controlled the race ahead of Guerrieri, with Tarquini holding position behind.
Jean-Karl Vernay in the Team WRT Audi briefly kept in touch with the lead trio, but lost a spot when Pepe Oriola in the Campos Cupra got the jump on him after taking the joker lap a lap earlier. Oriola then grabbed the final podium spot when Tarquini slowed on the final lap with a puncture, but the Italian still crossed the line in fourth.
Zandvoort Race 2 winner Aurélien Comte managed to pass the Boutsen Ginion Honda of Benjamin Lessennes for sixth.
Nathanael Berthon finished eighth in his Comtoyou Racing Audi RS 3 LMS ahead of the WRT Audi of Gordon Shedden, with Frédéric Vervisch completing the top ten.
Yvan Muller now moves back into the lead of the standings with former leader and nephew Yann Ehrlacher not scoring, with Jean-Karl Vernay now third in the standings, 31 points down.
Source: Touringcartimes