SEAT driver Gabriele Tarquini ends Chevrolet's World Touring Car winning streak in Slovakia

The result is Tarquini's first win since April last year, when he took the top step of the podium at Zolder.

Polesitter Norbert Michelisz led the early laps before being bumped wide by Tarquini at the downhill braking for Turn 2 on lap three. Once ahead, Tarquini completed an unflustered drive to take a 2.4-second margin of victory.

Michelisz had appeared set for a fightback after dropping to third in the incident, but the Zengo Motorsport driver's challenge ended when he was tapped into a spin by championship leader Yvan Muller on the following tour.

Muller was slapped with a drive-through penalty for causing avoidable contact and finished outside the top 10. Team-mate Alain Menu salvaged some honour for the factory Chevrolets by taking the final place on the podium. In a disappointing Slovakian weekend for the dominant RML team, Rob Huff posted his first retirement in two years in the third factory Cruze.

Local star Michelisz kept the packed crowds entertained by making a recovery to sixth, setting fastest lap on the way. Michelisz's progress was aided by Tuenti Racing's Pepe Oriola losing second place through a late race front-left puncture. Oriola's misfortune was a reprieve for Dudukalo, who had given the position away by drifting wide into the gravel at the final corner midway through the race.

Reigning Italian Superstars champion Alberto Cerqui scored his best WTCC to date in fourth. The ROAL Motorsport BMW racer finished ahead of the similar Wiechers-Sport machine of Stefano D'Aste.

From 10th on the grid, D'Aste negotiated an incident-packed first corner to run fourth at the completion of the opening lap. Arena's Tom Chilton was a Turn 1 retirement, when he speared into the gravel. The sister Ford of James Nash was also in the wars and will not start race two. Nash retired in an incident that also involved fourth qualifier Tiago Monteiro's Tuenti SEAT Leon and Huff.

Results - 15 laps:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car                Time/Gap
 1.  Gabriele Tarquini     Lukoil SEAT           22m42.275s
 2.  Aleksei Dudukalo      Lukoil SEAT             + 2.484s
 3.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet               + 4.194s
 4.  Alberto Cerqui        ROAL BMW                + 6.992s
 5.  Stefano D'Aste        Wiechers BMW            + 7.978s
 6.  Norbert Michelisz     Zengo BMW               + 9.943s
 7.  Darryl O'Young        Special Tuning SEAT    + 11.164s
 8.  Tom Coronel           ROAL BMW               + 11.395s
 9.  Tom Boardman          Special Tuning SEAT    + 20.643s
10.  Gabor Weber           Zengo BMW              + 20.961s
11.  Yvan Muller           Chevrolet              + 21.174s
12.  Mehdi Bennani         Proteam BMW            + 21.787s
13.  Alex MacDowall        bamboo Chevrolet       + 22.676s
14.  Pasquale di Sabatino  bamboo Chevrolet       + 31.153s
15.  Charles Ng            Engstler BMW         + 1m42.494s

Retirements:

     Pepe Oriola           Tuenti SEAT               7 laps
     Rob Huff              Chevrolet                 7 laps
     Franz Engstler        Engstler BMW              5 laps
     Tiago Monteiro        Tuenti SEAT                1 lap
     James Nash            Arena Ford                0 laps
     Tom Chilton           Arena Ford                0 laps