José María López continued his trend of winning all of the main World Touring Car Championship races of the season so far, holding on to win ahead of Citroën team-mate Yvan Muller.
López led the race from pole position in wet conditions, whilst further back he was joined early on at the front of the race by Honda’s Rob Huff and Muller, who had got off to a strong start from seventh on the grid to slot into third by turn one.
The leading trio then enjoyed a close battle during the first two thirds of the race, before Huff made a move on Muller heading into turn two on lap ten.
Slight contact between the rivals gave Huff second, but the Brit was later handed a drive-through penalty for the incident, dropping him down to the bottom of the top ten.
With Muller having lost ground to López in the move, when the Honda served its penalty on the following lap the reigning champion had just enough of a gap to prevent Muller serving a threat, earning his third win of the season and completing a lock out of all of the ‘main races’ in the 2016 season thus far.
With Huff dropping down the order with his penalty, that left team-mate Tiago Monteiro to take third, just ahead of Polestar Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk in fourth, despite the Swede putting plenty of pressure on the Portuguese driver for the final podium position in the closing laps.
Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Tom Chilton finished in fifth, having enjoyed several battles through the field to make his way up from tenth on the grid, ahead of the recovering Huff in sixth.
ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel took the flag in seventh, with the Dutchman having lost out on the opening lap from his front-row grid position when a competitor tagged him from behind, dropping him to ninth.
The third works’ Honda of home hero Norbert Michelisz looked to be set for a sensational sixth-place finish from the back of the grid, until the final lap when his Civic’s left-rear wheel broke and pitched him off the track. That in turn led to several drivers passing precariously around the Hungarian, including Coronel who lost out to the second SLR Citroën of Mehdi Bennani, who took eighth despite having earlier been handed a penalty for slight contact with Monteiro early in the race.
LADA’s Hugo Valente and the limping Michelisz completed the top ten, with the second Volvo of Fredrik Ekblom just missing out on the points in 11th.
There was a brief two-lap safety car period after three laps in the race when the third SLR Citroën of Grégoire Demoustier locked up at turn one and speared head-first into the barriers.
LADA’s Gabriele Tarquini also retired from the race after five laps when he made contact with Björk whilst defending fifth position, resulting in damaged left-rear suspension for the Italian.
A poor race for LADA was later compounded when Nicky Catsburg slipped down the order, eventually finishing in 13th after being given a drive-through penalty for exceeding track limits when he skipped the chicane late in the race due to the low-grip nature of the circuit.
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 | 17 | 17 LAPS | 2:10.774 | 1 | |
| 2 | 68 | Yvan MULLER |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 17 | 2.821 | 2:10.831 | 7 | |
| 3 | 18 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 17 | 14.981 | 2:11.519 | 4 | |
| 4 | 62 | Thed BJÖRK |  |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 WTCC | 17 | 18.026 | 2:12.224 | 5 | |
| 5 | 3 | T | Tom CHILTON |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 17 | 19.834 | 2:11.370 | 10 |
| 6 | 12 | Rob HUFF | |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 17 | 24.535 | 2:11.338 | 3 | |
| 7 | 9 | T | Tom CORONEL |  |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 17 | 26.979 | 2:12.660 | 2 |
| 8 | 25 | T | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 17 | 27.898 | 2:11.866 | 9 |
| 9 | 7 | Hugo VALENTE | |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 17 | 36.557 | 2:12.598 | 12 | |
| 10 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 17 | 36.867 | 2:12.066 | 17 | |
| 11 | 61 | Fredrik EKBLOM | |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 WTCC | 17 | 42.681 | 2:12.991 | 8 | |
| 12 | 27 | T | John FILIPPI | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 17 | 50.959 | 2:13.184 | 13 |
| 13 | 10 | Nicky CATSBURG | |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 17 | 58.529 | 2:12.993 | 6 | |
| 14 | 55 | T | Ferenc FICZA | |
Zengő Motorsport | Honda Civic WTCC | 17 | 1:13.924 | 2:16.359 | 16 |
| 15 | 77 | T | René MÜNNICH |  |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 15 | 2 Lp. | 2:15.841 | 15 |
| R | 2 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 5 | 12 Lp. | 2:16.628 | 11 | |
| R | 11 | T | Grégoire DEMOUSTIER | |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 2 | 15 Lp. | 2:18.567 | 14 |