Citroën’s José María López won the second World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) race in France, despite contact with Tiago Monteiro which spun the Honda driver out of the race.
At the start of the race, pole man Mehdi Bennani made a clear jump start which later earned him a drive-through penalty. The Moroccan lead the early stages ahead of Zengő Motorsport’s Norbert Michelisz and Honda’s Tiago Monteiro, before serving his penalty on lap three.
Further back, López came through the field from eighth on the grid, and was up to fifth before the halfway stage of the opening lap. The Argentine then passed team-mate Ma Qing Hua for fourth at the end of the lap, before starting to pile the pressure on Monteiro ahead.
Things came to a head on lap seven, when López went around the outside of Monteiro into turn one, staying on his line heading to the inside of the kink approaching turn two. The contact spun Monteiro out of second, causing the Portuguese driver to later retire from the race with a broken wheel hub.
In the drama, Ma slipped up to second, although López re-passed his team-mate on lap 11 before setting about closing the 1.357-second lead to Michelisz ahead.
On lap 14, just three laps from the finish, López passed Michelisz for the lead, having earlier taken more than a second out of the Honda driver in a single lap.
Michelisz held on to finish in second, taking his third podium finish of the season, ahead of Ma in third, who scored his second podium of the year.
Yvan Muller finished the race in fourth, unable to pass team-mate Ma ahead. It means that despite qualifying ahead of López and beating him in race one, if the Argentine’s win stands Muller will leave France having lost points to his rival in the championship.
Honda’s Gabriele Tarquini finished in fifth, again coming through the field from 14th on the grid to make up more positions than any other driver.
Campos Racing’s Hugo Valente was the top Chevrolet driver in sixth, staunchly defending his position at the very end of the race as ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel looked to pass heading over the finish line, with just 0.036 seconds separating the pair at the end of the race.
Tom Chilton finished in eighth behind his team-mate, having lost out at the start of the race with a slow getaway.
Erstwhile race leader Bennani salvaged points with a ninth-place finish, ahead of Nika Racing’s Rickard Rydell in tenth, who enjoyed a late-race battle with the Moroccan.
A difficult day for LADA saw front-row starter Jaap van Lagen drop to 11th to finish outside the points, ahead of team-mate Nicky Catsburg in 12th. Rob Huff failed to even start the race due to the damage he sustained in his race one contact with Grégoire Demoustier.
Race one winner Sébastien Loeb retired from the race after just three laps when the Frenchman collected a tyre stack and damaged the front-left corner of his C-Elysée.
With his win, López increases his points gap over Muller by 13 points to 39 points, with the gap having been narrowed to 26 points after race one.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME/GAP | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 37 | José María LÓPEZ |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 16 | 16 LAPS | 1:31.575 | 8 | |
| 2 | 5 | Y | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
Zengő Motorsport | Honda Civic WTCC | 16 | 1.449 | 1:31.720 | 3 |
| 3 | 33 | MA Qing Hua |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 16 | 2.156 | 1:32.032 | 7 | |
| 4 | 68 | Yvan MULLER |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 16 | 3.165 | 1:32.059 | 9 | |
| 5 | 2 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 16 | 12.071 | 1:32.211 | 14 | |
| 6 | 7 | Y | Hugo VALENTE | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 16 | 16.645 | 1:32.386 | 5 |
| 7 | 4 | Y | Tom CORONEL |  |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 16 | 16.681 | 1:32.329 | 13 |
| 8 | 3 | Y | Tom CHILTON |  |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 16 | 16.792 | 1:32.325 | 6 |
| 9 | 25 | Y | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 16 | 22.667 | 1:31.881 | 1 |
| 10 | 19 | Rickard RYDELL |  |
Nika International | Honda Civic WTCC | 16 | 24.009 | 1:32.732 | 17 | |
| 11 | 46 | Jaap VAN LAGEN | |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 16 | 26.371 | 1:32.345 | 2 | |
| 12 | 10 | Nick CATSBURG | |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 16 | 28.673 | 1:33.273 | 12 | |
| 13 | 27 | Y | John FILIPPI | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 16 | 34.641 | 1:33.273 | 18 |
| 14 | 11 | Y | Grégoire DEMOUSTIER | |
Craft-Bamboo Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 16 | 38.623 | 1:31.917 | 11 |
| 15 | 26 | Y | Stefano D’ASTE | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 14 | 2 Lp. | 1:32.774 | 15 |
| R | 18 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 7 | 9 Lp. | 1:31.660 | 4 | |
| R | 9 | Sébastien LOEB | |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 3 | 13 Lp. | 1:31.823 | 10 | |
| NS | 12 | Rob HUFF | |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 0 | – | – | 16 |