José María López led home a Citroen 1-2-3 finish in the opening round of the 2014 World Touring Car Championship, taking his second career win in three races to lead the Championship after the opening race.
Team-mates Sebastian Loeb and Yvan Muller followed the Argentine driver home to secure a dream result for Citroen on their WTCC debut, while Yokohama Independent honours went to Franz Engstler in the Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320tc.
Lopez made the start and held the advantage from Loeb while Muller moved up the order to third after passing Tom Chilton in the ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet Cruze.
Once filling the top three positions, the Citroen drivers were able to pull away at the front of the field and Chilton was left in a race of his own as those behind him – fellow Chevrolet driver Dusan Borkovic and Tiago Monteiro in the Honda – got involved in a dice for fifth, which the Serbian driver won after a forceful move at the hairpin and Monteiro lost his rear bumper in the move.
The move by Borkovic brought the trio of the Hondas together – as the privateer cars of Norbert Michelisz and Mehdi Bennani closed in on the Castrol Honda driver and the Morrocan driver eventually found his way ahead of the Hungarian on the penultimate lap.
Hugo Valente also found a way ahead of the Zengo Motorsport driver to complete a double top ten finish for Campos Racing on their TC1 debut, while their TC2 entrant, John Filippi finished third in the Yokohama Independents’ in the teams SEAT Leon.
James Thompson scored the final point for LADA in 10th, finishing ahead of team-mate Mikhail Kozlovskiy while the third Honda of Rob Huff retired from proceedings early in the race.
Ahead of race 2, Lopez leads the Championship by 8 points from Loeb while Muller is a further 5 points behind in third.
Top ten result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
| 1 | 37 | TC1 | José María LÓPEZ |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 14 | 24:40.950 | 1:43.873 | 1 |
| 2 | 9 | TC1 | Sébastien LOEB |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 14 | 0.713 | 1:43.777 | 2 |
| 3 | 1 | TC1 | Yvan MULLER | |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 14 | 1.607 | 1:44.168 | 4 |
| 4 | 3 | TC1 | Tom CHILTON |  |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 14 | 8.222 | 1:45.327 | 3 |
| 5 | 18 | TC1 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 14 | 20.495 | 1:45.331 | 7 |
| 6 | 98 | TC1 | Dušan BORKOVIĆ |  |
NIS Petrol by Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 14 | 21.849 | 1:46.086 | 5 |
| 7 | 25 | TC1 | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Proteam Racing | Honda Civic WTCC | 14 | 25.111 | 1:46.370 | 9 |
| 8 | 7 | TC1 | Hugo VALENTE | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 14 | 29.953 | 1:46.179 | 12 |
| 9 | 5 | TC1 | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
Zengő Motorsport | Honda Civic WTCC | 14 | 44.583 | 1:46.358 | 8 |
| 10 | 11 | TC1 | James THOMPSON | |
LADA Sport Lukoil | LADA Granta 1.6T | 14 | 48.596 | 1:46.856 | 11 |