López picked up victory in the Opening Race after a dramatic final-lap crash eliminated Tiago Monteiro and Yvan Muller. Honda driver Monteiro led from pole position through the first two laps while the Citroëns of Muller and López worked their way up to second and third, helped by Thed Björk pulling out of second place at the end of the grand prix loop on lap two with an oil pressure issue on his Volvo.

Having resisted Muller at the end of the second lap, Monteiro would go off on the final lap, hitting the barriers hard and bouncing back into the middle of the track. Muller was left with nowhere to go, while López managed to sneak through into the lead and take victory by just over half a second in front of fellow Citroën driver Tom Chilton.

Chilton had briefly passed the double world champion on the grand prix loop on the last lap before dropping back. He won the WTCC Trophy for independent racers with Norbert Michelisz completing the podium for Honda. Rob Huff charged through from P16 to fourth, while Sabine Schmitz scored her second world championship point on her return to the WTCC in P10.

López’s Main Race win came after a battle with the Honda of Michelisz, who made a better start than the pole-sitting Argentine to take the lead down the inside of Turn 1. López quickly responded though and reclaimed first place around the outside of the Schumacher S. A three-second lead was slashed to less than a second on lap two, but López held on to win by 0.435 seconds. He now leads the drivers’ standings by 69 points in his quest for a third FIA WTCC title.

Chilton was again the top WTCC Trophy driver and again on the outright podium in third. Huff got very close to his fellow Briton on the final lap – even making contact – but had to settle for fourth with Schmitz P11 despite suffering a tyre failure on the final lap.