Yvan Muller has taken the lead of the World Touring Car Championship standings after victory in the first race at Valencia, as Rob Huff missed out on a podium finish after contact from Chevrolet teammate Alain Menu.
Polesitter Muller lost the lead of the race at the start after Gabriele Tarquini made a good start from third on the grid to move down the inside of the Chevrolet duo of Muller and Huff. Huff tried to challenge Muller for second later round the lap but was then hit by Menu, who had in turn been hit by Tiago Monteiro. Huff lost out, dropping down the order.
Muller took the lead back from Tarquini at Turn 2 on the fourth lap. The Italian was passed for second by Menu a few laps later and then slowed and retired with a misfire.
Behind Muller and Menu, Tom Coronel completed the podium after passing Tiago Monteiro. Monteiro then fell behind Kristian Poulsen, the recovering Huff and Javier Villa. While Poulsen finished fourth, Huff had to hold onto fifth under pressure from Villa in the closing laps.
Norbert Michelisz and Monteiro finished close behind in seventh and eighth, with Robert Dahlgren and Stefano D'Aste completing the top ten.
Race 1 results – 14 laps:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time/Gap |
| 1 | Yvan Muller | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 25:39.052 |
| 2 | Alain Menu | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 1.103 |
| 3 | Tom Coronel | ROAL | BMW 320 TC | 6.345 |
| 4 | Kristian Poulsen | Engstler | BMW 320 TC | 9.961 |
| 5 | Robert Huff | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 15.404 |
| 6 | Javier Villa | Proteam | BMW 320 TC | 15.630 |
| 7 | Norbert Michelisz | Zengo | BMW 320 TC | 16.206 |
| 8 | Tiago Monteiro | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 16.665 |
| 9 | Robert Dahlgren | Polestar | Volvo C30 Drive | 16.777 |
| 10 | Stefano D’Aste | Wiechers | BMW 320 TC | 17.139 |
| 11 | Michel Nykjaer | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 18.962 |
| 12 | Pepe Oriola | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 23.362 |
| 13 | Aleksei Dudukalo | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | 26.603 |
| 14 | Yukinori Taniguchi | Bamboo | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 28.955 |
| 15 | Darryl O’Young | Bamboo | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | 44.967 |
| 16 | Fabio Fabiani | Proteam | BMW 320si | 1:37.597 |
| 17 | Gabriele Tarquini | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | +4 laps |
| 18 | David Sigacev | KK | BMW 320 TC | +4 laps |
| 19 | Fredy Barth | Sunred | Sunred SR Leon 1.6T | +4 laps |
| NC | Franz Engstler | Engstler | BMW 320 TC | +5 laps |
| Ret | Mehdi Bennani | Proteam | BMW 320 TC | 4 laps |
