Yvan Muller made inroads into Jose Maria Lopez‘s World Touring Car Championship lead by winning the first race of the day at Moscow Raceway.
Lopez had won the opening race at the seven previous WTCC rounds in a run stretching back to October 2014.
But after Muller triumphed in a battle between the Citroen pair for pole position by 0.046 seconds, the Frenchman led the race from start to finish.
The two Citroens, the Honda of Gabriele Tarquini and Lada of Rob Huff had run close together during the opening laps while leaving the rest of the field behind.
Muller was then able to pull away from Lopez, crossing the finish line with an advantage of just under three seconds. Tarquini completed the podium after keeping Huff at bay.
Ma Qing Hua got ahead of Tom Chilton to finish fifth while Norbert Michelisz headed Tiago Monteiro and Sebastien Loeb, who had qualified down in 11th. Jaap van Lagen passed new Lada team-mate Nicky Catsburg to complete the top 10 after surviving first-lap contact with the third Dutchman, Tom Coronel.
