Yvan Muller claimed an eighth and crucial victory in the season that significantly increased his leading margin in the championship standings to twenty points ahead of his Chevrolet team-mate Rob Huff.
The reigning world champion benefitted from a contact between Huff and Gabriele Tarquini on the first lap to move to second behind the Italian. Three more laps and Muller was leading and capable of creating a big gap.
Tarquini completed a great defensive race, salvaging a second position that was completely unexpected, considering the brake problems he had had in the first race and the fact that this was not the best track for the SUNRED León cars.
Once again Colin Turkington was among the top players, winning the Yokohama Trophy, narrowly missing the podium and offering a great show to the Chinese fans.
A brilliant Charles Ng scored his first WTCC point by finishing tenth after having started from the last spot of the grid.
Key moments
Start – Tarquini takes the best start, jumping in the lead ahead of poleman Huff and Turkington
Lap 1 – a crash eliminates Michelisz, Villa, Monteiro and O’Young; Nykjær is involved but rejoins
Lap 1 – Tarquini and Huff come together, Muller benefits and overtakes Turkington for second
Lap 2 – Huff overtakes Turkington for third
Lap 4 – Mulles overtakes Tarquini and takes the lead
Lap 5 – Oriola and Dahlgren overtake Bart moving up to eighth and ninth
Lap 6 – Muller creates a gap
Lap 9 – Tarquini is closely chased by Huff, Turkington, Coronel and Menu
Lap 10 – Turkington locks his brake at Turn 1 not to hit Huff and drops behind Coronel and Menu
Lap 11 – Poulsen joins the group fighting over the second place
Lap 14 – Engstler overtakes Oriola for eighth
Lap 19 – Turkington overtakes Menu for fifth
Lap 20 – Engstler also queues to Tarquini’s group in eighth position
Lap 24 – Menu pushes Turkington sideways but can’t find a gap to overtake him
Lap 25 – Huff and Coronel make contact and Turkington overtakes Coronel for fourth
Withdrawals
Y. Taniguchi, DNS: race incident, T. Monteir race incident, J. Villa: race incident, D. O’Young: race incident, N. Michelisz: race incident
| Pos. | Driver | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Y. Muller | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 25 laps - 28m19.599s |
| 02 | G. Tarquini | SR Leon 1.6T | +10.518s |
| 03 | R. Huff | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | +11.385s |
| 04 | C. Turkington | BMW 320 TC | +11.812s |
| 05 | T. Coronel | BMW 320 TC | +12.140s |
| 06 | A. Menu | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | +12.896s |
| 07 | K. Poulsen | BMW 320 TC | +13.336s |
| 08 | F. Engstler | BMW 320 TC | +13.612s |
| 09 | R. Dahlgren | Volvo C30 | +22.279s |
| 10 | C. Ng | BMW 320 TC | +24.172s |
| 11 | M. Bennani | BMW 320 TC | +33.725s |
| 12 | F. Barth | SR Leon 1.6T | +36.977s |
| 13 | P. Oriola | SR Leon 1.6T | +43.090s |
| 14 | M. Nykjaer | SR Leon 1.6T | +46.761s |
| 15 | F. Fabiani | BMW 320 si | +1 lap |
| 16 | P. Ma | BMW 320 si | +1 lap |
| 17 | A. Dudukalo | SR Leon 1.6T | +2 laps |
| 18 | D. O’Young | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | DNF |
| 19 | T. Monteiro | SR Leon 1.6T | DNF |
| 20 | N. Michelisz | BMW 320 TC | DNF |
| 21 | J. Villa | BMW 320 TC | DNF |
| 22 | Y. Taniguchi | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | DNS |
| Best lap | Y. Muller | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 1:06.080 |