By alley - Apr 3, 2016, 7:31 AM ET

WTCC: Huff starts Honda career with win

Rob Huff cantered to victory in the opening race of the World Touring Car Championship season at Paul Ricard on his first outing for Honda.

Huff took full advantage of a sluggish getaway from polesitter Hugo Valente to leap into the lead at the start in his Honda Civic, and controlled his pace until the finish to claim his first win in more than a year. Sebastien Loeb Racing's Mehdi Bennani finished a comfortable second in his privateer Citroen C-Elysee, with Huff's team-mate Norbert Michelisz completing the podium.

After being 10th in Q2, Huff had originally been due to start the opening race from pole before Thed Bjork's exclusion from qualifying promoted Hugo Valente to the reverse-grid pole instead.

But Huff moved into the lead almost immediately at the start to make amends for his slow getaway

in the MAC3 time trial a day earlier and was followed through Turn 1 by Bennani, the pair making a quick escape as a host of cars squabbled for third. Bennani chased Huff gamely but was never in a position to challenge the Briton, eventually finishing 2.184 seconds down.

After his slow start, Valente had been on course to complete the podium but was gradually caught by Michelisz and the third Honda of Tiago Monteiro, who had advanced from ninth on the grid.

The Lada driver held his position initially until a late lunge from Michelisz at Turn 1 allowed him to slip by into third with four laps to go, while Monteiro completed a sublime switchback pass at the final corner on the same lap to secure fourth. Valente held his position from there, resisting late pressure from world champion Jose Maria Lopez, who had a subdued run to sixth in his factory Citroen.

Fredrik Ekblom retired from fifth early on with rear-suspension damage, but Bjork was able to restore some pride for the Polestar Volvo team as he claimed seventh.

The Swede, starting from the rear of the field thanks to his qualifying exclusion, snatched the position on the final lap after taking advantage of a tangle between Lada's Nick Catsburg and ROAL Motorsport's Tom Coronel at the first turn to sweep clear on the final lap.

Coronel and Catsburg had fought for as high as fourth but became embroiled in a tussle with each other that lasted the majority of the race, with Catsburg eventually coming out on top to finish eighth. Gregoire Demoustier held off SLR team-mate Tom Chilton for the final point.

RESULTS - 18 LAPS

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Gap
1	Rob Huff	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	24m26.764s
2	Mehdi Bennani	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	2.184s
3	Norbert Michelisz	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	6.737s
4	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	7.911s
5	Hugo Valente	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	12.554s
6	Jose Maria Lopez	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	12.955s
7	Thed Bjork	Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo	22.162s
8	Nicky Catsburg	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	23.708s
9	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet	24.892s
10	Gregoire Demoustier	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	25.738s
11	Tom Chilton	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Citroen	26.249s
12	John Filippi	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	26.908s
13	Yvan Muller	Citroen Total WTCC	Citroen	40.095s
14	Rene Munnich	All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport	Chevrolet	42.417s
-	Gabriele Tarquini	LADA Sport Rosneft	Lada	Retirement
-	Fredrik Ekblom	Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo	Not classified
-	Daniel Nagy	Zengo Motorsport	Honda	Withdrawn
-	Ferenc Ficza	Zengo Motorsport	Honda	Withdrawn