MACAO, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Alain Menu claimed victory for Chevrolet in the first race of Sunday's FIA World Touring Car Championship races at Macao, it was SEAT's driver Yvan Muller caught the limelight whose third place was enough to win the title.

    Muller had gone into the race with a 14-points advantage over SEAT teammate Gabriele Tarquini, and only needed to finish in the wheel tracks of his Italian colleague to secure himself the championship.

    But rather than play it too safe, Muller made sure to clinch the crown in style as he battled hard for the final place on the podium behind Menu and three-times champion Andy Priaulx.

    Menu led away cleanly at the start and had managed to open up a 2.8 seconds advantage and ran to the final point with a time of 23 minutes 10.203 seconds. Priaulx came second at 23:10.726.

    Muller had run fifth in the early stages of the race, but moved up to fourth on lap two when Rob Huff's incident with Priaulx saw him drop down the order. He then gained another spot when SEAT teammate Rickard Rydell slowed with a suspected engine failure on lap four.

    After that, Muller faced pressure from behind, first from Huff and then from Augusto Farfus who had moved up to fourth on the penultimate lap. Muller was able to hold on with a time of 23:18.784 and clinch his first WTCC crown, with Tarquini finishing seventh.

    "I was thinking four laps to the end, when will the bad luck come," said Muller, who saw his title hopes evaporate last year when he was stopped with a mechanical problem. "But finally we did it. It was tough work."

    In the second race, Huff delivered another victory after seeing three leaders crash out of the event in the final two laps.

    N. Technology's James Thompson looked to be on course to grab victory in the race, having led cleanly away from pole position and holding off intense pressure from the following BMW of Augusto Farfus.

    But on lap eight, Thompson swiped the wall at the Solitude Esses, badly damaging his Honda Accord and forcing him into retirement. That incident left the way clear for Farfus to take victory for BMW, but the Brazilian crashed on the final lap too.

    The accidents allowed Huff, who had been running a lonely fourth for much of the race, to take victory with 23:23.216, following shortly after teammate Alain Menu had won the first race of the day.

    Newly crowned champion Yvan Muller came through the chaos to finish at 23:30.469, ahead of outgoing champion Andy Priaulx who clocked 23:31.173 to finish the 8-lap race.