Thed Björk charged from sixth on the grid at the Nürburgring Nordschleife to win the Opening Race at FIA WTCC Race of Germany.
The Polestar Cyan Racing ace made a superb start to the race, squeezing between Esteban Guerrieri and Tom Chilton to climb to third as his team-mate Néstor Girolami converted pole position into the race lead ahead of Mehdi Bennani.
At the end of the first lap, Björk passed Bennani around the outside just after the long Döttinger Höhe straight, and he did the same to Girolami one lap later to lead onto the last of the three tours.
Girolami crashed out on the final lap, promoting Bennani back up into second place, but the Moroccan could not catch Björk, who won by 2.5 seconds.
Bennani took the WTCC Trophy victory ahead of fellow Citroën driver Rob Huff, who made a brave pass on Tom Chilton at Tiergarten at the end of the race.
Guerrieri finished in fifth, while Tiago Monteiro lost out on a possible sixth when he had a front-right puncture on his Honda on the last lap.
Nicky Catsburg squeezed his way past Norbert Michelisz at the end of the race to finish sixth, having earlier had an entertaining battle with fellow Dutchman Tom Coronel, who finished eighth. After his heavy crash on Friday, Yann Ehrlacher claimed ninth place with John Filippi in 10th.
The Main Race follows at 12h45 local time with Michelisz on pole and Catsburg alongside on the front row.