Termas de Rio Hondo, Race 1 : Chilton wins, Huff and Muller on the podium

Tom Chilton scored his first outright win for Sébastien Loeb Racing in the FIA World Touring Car Championship in the Opening Race at WTCC Race of Argentina, as José María López delighted the crowd with a charging drive to fifth from 18th on the grid.

Both Chilton and Honda driver Tiago Monteiro made great starts to the race from second and third on the grid, allowing them to pass pole-sitter John Filippi on the run down to Turn 1. Chilton and Monteiro then banged door handles a few corners later, and Monteiro put a wheel on the grass heading onto the long back straight. Filippi regained second, while others were four-wide behind him into Turn 5.

Chilton was able to open up a lead of over two seconds, giving him a useful margin once Rob Huff had found a way past Filippi on lap seven. With pressure from Yvan Muller behind him, Huff was able to cut the gap to Chilton, but Chilton held on to win by 0.792 seconds, also taking WTCC Trophy honours for the fourth time in 2016.

While Muller completed the podium and Monteiro finished fourth, López came through to fifth after a penalty for an engine change on his Citroën relegated him to the back of the grid.

Once passed by Monteiro, Filippi initially held onto fifth after contact with Mehdi Bennani caused the Moroccan to drop behind Tom Coronel, Norbert Michelisz and López. López was then able to pass the trio ahead of him in consecutive laps to get fifth, and Filippi was quickly shuffled back to 10th position.

Michelisz followed López past Coronel to claim sixth, with Bennani eighth and James Thompson ninth.

After starring so far this weekend on home ground, Esteban Guerrieri had a difficult first WTCC race, falling down the order in the opening stages before pitting to have his Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 checked over in time for the Main Race