Muller wins Race 1 after a massive crash

Yvan Muller claimed a lights-to-flag victory at Vila Real and jumped on top of the standings, as some of the title contenders were sidelined after a massive crash. A catastrophic collision at the start eliminated one third of the field and resulted in a long suspension for recovering the wrecked cars and repairing the barriers.
The two Volkswagen Golf GTI cars of Rob Huff and Mehdi Bennani that had started from the front row came together at high speed a few hundred metres down the track. They hit the barrier, bounced back and were collected by the rest of the field in a massive pile up. Both Huff and Bennani were rescued and transferred to the hospital for medical checks, but they only suffered for bruises and concussion.
When the race restarted behind the safety car, seven cars were missing: Huff’s, Bennani’s, Björk’s, Ehrlacher’s, Thompson’s, Michelisz’s, Filippi’s and Rodrigues’.
Muller took the lead and never looked back, as he was followed by Esteban Guerrieri and Gabriele Tarquini. Behind the leading trio, Jean-Karl Vernay tried to defend the fourth position from Pepe Oriola, but the Spaniard overtook him on lap 8. On the last lap, Tarquini slowed down with a flat front tyre and lost third place, finishing fourth, behind Oriola and ahead of Vernay.
Muller is now the new points leader with 164, 18 clear of Ehrlacher; Vernay and Tarquini are third and fourth with 133 and 132 points respectively; Huff slipped to fifth a further three points adrift. 
Action will resume tomorrow morning at 9:00 local time (10:00 CET) for the Qualifying session for races 2 and 3.