López continued to lead the drivers' championship after four rounds, twenty–five points ahead of teammate Sébastien Loeb.

The two cars stopped on the circuit brought out the red flags three minutes before the end of the session which did not resume.

The first occurred halfway through when Pasquale Di Sabatino spun at turn ten and collided with the barriers.

[3] Loeb led a Citroën 1–2–3 in practice two which was interrupted by a red flag once again when Valente crashed into the barriers and bounced back across the circuit.

[7] After qualifying it was found Morbidelli had improved his Q1 time under yellow flags, he was given a five–place grid penalty with Muller inheriting pole position for race one.

On lap five Norbert Michelisz ran wide at turn five which allowed Tarquini to move up to eighth place; Morbidelli had dropped down the order from sixth on the grid and was running tenth.

Behind them the Lada of Thompson was tapped and spun across the circuit, collecting his teammate Huff and colliding with Muller who would need to return to the pits for repairs.

On the restart Tarquini left it late to go as he looked to defend from López, the Citroen passed the Honda on the back straight to take the lead.