Tom Chilton took his first win of the season in the opening World Touring Car Championship race at Monza, ahead of fellow Brit Rob Huff, after early leaders Mehdi Bennani and Norbert Michelisz took each other out.
ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel started the race from pole position for the reversed-grid race, but the Chevrolet driver got off to a poor start, as he had done on the warm-up lap, to drop to the back of the field before the first chicane.
That left Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Mehdi Bennani in the lead, ahead of Chilton, at the end of the opening lap.
Honda’s Norbert Michelisz then overtook Chilton into the first chicane, with the Polestar Volvo f Néstor Girolami following past.
Michelisz kept close the rear of Bennani’s Citroën for a lap, before trying to pass the Moroccan into the Parabolica on lap three. Bennani turned in and the two made contact, taking them out of the race and handing Chilton the lead.
Meanwhile Girolami also retired from the race after suffering suspension failure on his Volvo on the second lap, the Argentine driver limping back to the pits to have his car repaired for the Main Race.
That left Chilton leading Esteban Guerrieri and Huff, although the Münnich Motorsport driver dispatched the Campos Racing driver one lap later, before latching onto the bumper of Chilton.
In the end, Huff had no real opportunities to pass Chilton and settled for second, whilst Honda’s Tiago Monteiro completed the podium after moving up the order late in the race.
Polestar’s Thed Björk took the chequered flag in fourth, after passing Guerrieri for the position in the closing laps, leaving the Argentine to finish in fifth.
The recovering Coronel took sixth, ahead of Sébastien Loeb Racing’s John Filippi in seventh, marking the Frenchman’s best-ever result in the championship.
Nicky Catsburg slipped down the order in the final laps and crossed the line in eighth, whilst Kevin Gleason scored points on his début for RC Motorsport with ninth, ahead of the Zengő Motorsport Honda of Dániel Nagy in tenth.
The second RC Motorsport LADA of Yann Ehrlacher had finished in sixth on the road, but he was given a post-race ten-second time penalty for leaving the track limits when trying to avoid Coronel’s bogged-down car at the start.
Amongst the retirements of the race were lead battle duo Michelisz and Bennani, and Girolami with broken suspension. Honda’s Ryo Michigami managed just two laps due to engine problems, whilst Zengő Motorsport’s Aurélien Panis failed to start the race due to an oil leak.
Honda are confident of being able to repair damage to the left-rear suspension on Michelisz’s car ahead of the Main Race at 14:15 CEST (13:15 BST).
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 3 | Tom CHILTON |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 9 | 9 LAPS | 1:54.527 | 4 |
| 2 | 12 | Rob HUFF | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 9 | 0.329 | 1:54.355 | 8 |
| 3 | 18 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 9 | 2.630 | 1:54.427 | 9 |
| 4 | 62 | Thed BJÖRK |  |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 Polestar | 9 | 6.793 | 1:53.976 | 10 |
| 5 | 86 | Esteban GUERRIERI |  |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 9 | 6.899 | 1:54.628 | 3 |
| 6 | 9 | Tom CORONEL |  |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 9 | 11.100 | 1:54.784 | 1 |
| 7 | 27 | John FILIPPI |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 9 | 12.928 | 1:55.112 | 13 |
| 8 | 63 | Nicky CATSBURG | |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 Polestar | 9 | 18.067 | 1:54.458 | 7 |
| 9 | 24 | Kevin GLEASON |  |
RC Motorsport | LADA Vesta WTCC | 9 | 18.449 | 1:55.733 | 15 |
| 10 | 99 | Dániel NAGY |  |
Zengő Motorsport Kft | Honda Civic WTCC | 9 | 19.200 | 1:55.599 | 16 |
| 11 | 68 | Yann EHRLACHER | |
RC Motorsport | LADA Vesta WTCC | 9 | 20.207 | 1:54.638 | 12 |
| R | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ | |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 5 | 4 Lp. | 1:54.678 | 5 |
| R | 25 | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 4 | 5 Lp. | 1:55.087 | 2 |
| R | 61 | Néstor GIROLAMI | |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 Polestar | 4 | 5 Lp. | – | 6 |
| R | 34 | Ryo MICHIGAMI |  |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 2 | 7 Lp. | – | 11 |
| R | 8 | Aurélien PANIS | |
Zengő Motorsport Kft | Honda Civic WTCC | 0 | – | – | 14 |