Citroën’s Yvan Muller took his fifth win of the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) season in race two in Shanghai, passing Honda’s Gabriele Tarquini for the win half-way through the race.
Honda’s Tarquini led the early stages of the race, after getting ahead of pole man Hugo Valente at the start. The Campos Racing driver attempted to come back on the Italian, but contact between the pair exiting turn one damaged Valente’s suspension, pitching him out of the race and into a spin two corners later.
Tarquini thus led at the end of the opening lap from Muller, who had got the jump on LADA’s Rob Huff and Campos Racing’s John Filippi at the start.
Although Tarquini was able to open up and maintain a 1.3 second lead in the early stages of the races, Muller came back at the half-way point and passed the Honda driver exiting the hairpin on lap nine.
Tarquini then resisted a challenge from José María López for second in the closing laps of the race, leaving the points leader to settle for third, allowing Muller to marginally close the gap in the championship standings.
“It was a fantastic result, especially after the beginning of the weekend,” explained Muller after the race. “The boys gave me a great car. I knew I didn’t have a lot of opportunities to overtake him [Tarquini], so I knew it would have to be immediately or never.”
Sébastien Loeb brought his Citroën home in fourth after a quiet race trailing his team-mates, ahead of Huff in fifth, who made up for his race one retirement with a solid points finish.
The second works’ Honda of Tiago Monteiro finished in sixth having made up the majority of his positions on the opening lap of the race from 13th on the grid.
Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Mehdi Bennani was the top Yokohama Independent driver in seventh, beating the works Citroën of Ma Qing Hua, who had to settle for eighth after repairs to his car between race one and two.
LADA’s Nicolas Lapierre and Filippi completed the top ten, with the latter recording just his third points finish of the season.
Neither of the ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet Cruze’s of Tom Coronel and Tom Chilton started the race, with both cars suffering too much damage in their race one shunts.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME/GAP | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 68 | Yvan MULLER |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 14 | 14 LAPS | 1:52.403 | 5 | |
| 2 | 2 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 14 | 2.659 | 1:52.617 | 2 | |
| 3 | 37 | José María LÓPEZ |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 14 | 2.684 | 1:52.243 | 9 | |
| 4 | 9 | Sébastien LOEB | |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 14 | 6.079 | 1:52.191 | 6 | |
| 5 | 12 | Rob HUFF |  |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 14 | 8.366 | 1:53.400 | 4 | |
| 6 | 18 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 14 | 11.224 | 1:53.491 | 13 | |
| 7 | 25 | Y | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 14 | 14.339 | 1:53.015 | 10 |
| 8 | 33 | MA Qing Hua |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 14 | 15.378 | 1:53.495 | 8 | |
| 9 | 47 | Nicolas LAPIERRE | |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 14 | 24.968 | 1:53.497 | 11 | |
| 10 | 27 | Y | John FILIPPI | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 14 | 27.357 | 1:53.415 | 3 |
| 11 | 5 | Y | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
Zengő Motorsport | Honda Civic WTCC | 14 | 28.27 | 1:53.843 | 12 |
| 12 | 11 | Y | Grégoire DEMOUSTIER | |
Craft-Bamboo Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 14 | 28.654 | 1:53.672 | 17 |
| R | 26 | Y | Stefano D’ASTE | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 11 | 3 Lp. | 1:52.950 | 14 |
| R | 10 | Nick CATSBURG |  |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 1 | 13 Lp. | – | 7 | |
| R | 7 | Y | Hugo VALENTE | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 1 | 13 Lp. | – | 1 |
| NS | 4 | Y | Tom CORONEL | |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 0 | – | – | 15 |
| NS | 3 | Y | Tom CHILTON | |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 0 | – | – | 16 |