Alain Menu took his first victory of the season at Oschersleben, but only after Chevrolet teammate Rob Huff was black-flagged while leading.
Polesitter Augusto Farfus made a good start off the line, but ran wide at the tight Turn 1 after light contact from the Chevrolet of Huff, who himself was being pushed by Menu. The Chevrolet pairing were able to take the lead as Farfus dropped to fourth behind Tom Coronel. Gabriele Tarquini was forced to retire on the opening lap after his SEAT was damaged in the first-corner squeeze.
Farfus soon got past Coronel's SEAT and began chasing down Menu when Huff was given a drive-through penalty. The Brit later received a black flag after not coming in to complete his drive-through. He did eventually come in, handing Menu the lead, which he kept until the end of the race.
Farfus finished second, while Yvan Muller completed the podium in third after a strong race to move up from seventh on the grid. Coronel finished fourth ahead of SR-Sport teammate Tiago Monteiro and Andy Priaulx, who dropped back as far as eighth on the first lap after starting third. Michel Nykjaer finished seventh ahead of Norbert Michelisz, who will start on pole position for Race 2.
Kristian Poulsen won the Independents' class, beating Sergio Hernandez to finish ninth overall. Jordi Gene and Fredy Barth made contact in the early stages, as did Andrei Romanov and Yukinori Taniguchi.
