José María López led the drivers' championship coming into his home round, thirty–nine points ahead of teammate Yvan Muller.

Camilo Echevarría joined Liqui Moly Team Engstler on a one–off basis, replacing Pasquale Di Sabatino.

[1] Citroën Total WTCC reverted to three cars with Ma Qing Hua missing the Argentine round.

[4] Muller was fastest in the final practice session, morning pacesetter López was second ahead of ROAL Motorsport's Tom Chilton.

At the end of qualifying López claimed pole position at his home race with Muller and Loeb once again making it a Citroën 1–2–3.

On lap five Dušan Borković dropped from 11th to 13th having been passed by James Thompson and Morbidelli while his teammate Hugo Valente pitted with cooling problems.

[7] Huff got away from pole into the lead, Mehdi Bennani jumped up to second place while Valente dropped to fifth and got a light tap from Tarquini at the start.

Huff was second to take Lada's first podium finish in the World Touring Car Championship ahead of Muller in third and Franz Engstler was the victor in the TC2 class once again.