Citroën’s Yvan Muller won the first World Touring Car Championship race at the Salzburgring by a healthy 3.840 seconds from ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel and Citroën team-mate José María López.
Muller led the entire race, having inherited pole position from Gianni Morbidelli on Saturday afternoon and was never challenged during the race, maintaining a comfortable four-second lead.
Behind Muller, Coronel and López enjoyed a close battle for second. Whilst Coronel held the position from the start, he was passed by López on lap two. However the Argentine made a mistake at the first chicane on lap eight, going straight on. That handed Coronel the place back and, despite López’s best efforts, he could not repass the Dutchman.
Sébastien Loeb finished in fourth, having lost out at the first chicane to López whilst looking to pass Coronel.
Tiago Monteiro was the top Honda driver in fifth, having passed the Chevrolet of Tom Chilton ahead of him at the start of the race. Chilton finished in sixth, despite applying heavy pressure to Monteiro throughout the race.
Proteam Racing’s Mehdi Bennani headed up a trio of Honda drivers in seventh, with works’ driver Gabriele Tarquini and Zengő Motorsport’s Norbert Michelisz behind. Tarquini passed Michelisz for eighth on lap six when the Hungarian went wide at the Fahrer Lagerkurve.
Completing the top ten was Münnich Motorsport’s Morbidelli who, after losing pole on Saturday with a five-place grid penalty, got off to a terrible start and dropped from sixth to tenth at the start of the race. The Italian was unable to recover his lost ground and had to settle for a single point.
No LADAs finished in the points, with Rob Huff in 12th ahead of team-mates James Thompson and Mikhail Kozlovskiy.
Franz Engstler scored victory in the TC2 class at effectively his ‘home’ race, ahead of Campos Racing’s John Filippi and Liqui Moly team-mate Pasquale di Sabatino.
Campos Racing’s Hugo Valente and Dušan Borković both started the race after overnight repairs from their team. However further issues with their cars saw both drivers return to the pits for further adjustments to be made.
Top ten result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
| 1 | 1 | TC1 | Yvan MULLER |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 15 | 15 LAPS | 1:22.757 | 1 |
| 2 | 4 | TC1 | Tom CORONEL |  |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 15 | 3.84 | 1:23.066 | 3 |
| 3 | 37 | TC1 | José María LÓPEZ |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 15 | 4.276 | 1:22.571 | 4 |
| 4 | 9 | TC1 | Sébastien LOEB | |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 15 | 5.427 | 1:22.993 | 2 |
| 5 | 18 | TC1 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 15 | 12.403 | 1:23.508 | 7 |
| 6 | 3 | TC1 | Tom CHILTON |  |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 15 | 12.945 | 1:23.465 | 5 |
| 7 | 25 | TC1 | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Proteam Racing | Honda Civic WTCC | 15 | 13.566 | 1:23.532 | 8 |
| 8 | 2 | TC1 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 15 | 14.868 | 1:23.511 | 10 |
| 9 | 5 | TC1 | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
Zengő Motorsport | Honda Civic WTCC | 15 | 15.672 | 1:23.651 | 9 |
| 10 | 10 | TC1 | Gianni MORBIDELLI | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 15 | 16.184 | 1:23.601 | 6 |