Kevin Ceccon gives Alfa Romeo maiden WTCR victory

Kevin Ceccon emerged victorious from WTCR’s first race at Suzuka, claiming Alfa Romeo’s maiden win in the FIA World Cup and setting the fastest lap as well.
Yvan Muller secured a third place that helped him to join Gabriele Tarquini on top of the standings, while Thed Björk’s and Yann Ehrlacher’s hopes of closing the gaps from the leaders were jeopardized as they both failed to finish.
Pole sitter Aurélien Comte took the lead at the start from Ceccon and Muller, but during the second lap Ceccon’s Giulietta overtook Comte’s Peugeot 308 and began to pull away.
On lap 3, Björk clashed with Gordon Shedden and hit a tyre stack; the Swede retired with a broken suspension, while the safety car was deployed from lap 4 to 6 to put the tyres back in place.
The safety car disrupted the race a second time from lap 8 to 10 for recovering Yann Ehrlacher’s Honda Civic from the gravel at T15; the Frenchman lost control following an incident with Shedden that is currently investigated by the Stewards.
When the race resumed for the two final laps, Ceccon was able to retain a small gap, while Comte managed to keep Muller and Esteban Guerrieri at bay and finished second.
Mehdi Bennani, Jean-Karl Vernay, Mat’o Homola, Tarquini, Frédéric Vervisch and Pepe Oriola rounded off the top-ten with six different brands in the top-six: Alfa Romeo, Peugeot, Hyundai, Honda, Volkswagen and Audi.
In the standings, Tarquini and Muller are level at 251 points; they are followed by Björk (234), Vernay (215), Guerrieri (213) and Oriola (209).
Action will resume tomorrow with Race 2 at 11:05 local time (03:05 CET); Pepe Oriola will start from the front row of the top-ten reverse grid, with Rob Huff alongside him.