Salvatore Tavano broke his World Touring Car Championship points duck in style by storming to a lights-to-flag in the eleventh round of the series at Puebla, Mexico, although the biggest story of the race was arguably the heavily criticised circuit and a serious accident for Rob Huff.
The Italian, who was yet to score a point this year, defied both the attentions of team-mate Augusto Farfus Jr. and the expectations of many that he would allow the Brazilian through, to claim an impressive victory. Ryan Sharp secured both his and Honda's first ever podium, with independent rival Tom Coronel just behind in fourth place.
However, while Tavano was left to celebrate his win, much of the attention is now surrounding the circuit itself after several of drivers claimed it was ‘dangerous' following qualifying. Indeed, having been resurfaced last week, the weather conditions have caused the track itself to break up, creating several rough patches on the circuit.
With marbles across the surface of a circuit that is lined by concrete walls in many places, several of the teams claimed that the track was impossible to drive in places and dangerous, a fact that was reinforced when a number of drivers fell victim as soon as they strayed off the racing line.
Nonetheless, despite a delayed start to race as the marshals attempted to smoothen the circuit out, the race eventually got underway with a new driver leading from pole position after original pole sitter Rickard Rydell suffered an ten place grid following an engine blow before the race.
As a result Tavano started ahead of Sharp, with Farfus and Coronel just behind. From the start, Tavano got a strong start, with Sharp holding his nerve to move into second place, closely followed by Farfus, Jordi Gene and Coronel. Yvan Muller meanwhile would later receive a drive-thru penalty when he clearly jumped the start, the Frenchman duly dropping out of contention.
