Their clash prompted Yvan Muller to jump into third, while Gene slipped past back into his fourth place starting position, while Priaulx dropped back into fifth place. Nonetheless, Priaulx was dealt further good news when championship rival Augusto Farfus Jr. suffered an off-track moment, a problem that would eventually pitch him a lap down before the Brazilian retired on lap six.
Before long, the field fragmented into a number of intense battles, not least for the lead as Zanardi climbed all over the back of Muller's Schnitzer BMW, the Ravaglia Motorsport driver adopting aggressive lines in an attempt to put the German off course.
Further back Alain Menu, who was now up to sixth place, had to put up with the close attentions of Tom Coronel, once again doing a superb job in his independent GR Asia SEAT Leon, while Dirk Muller rounded out the top eight in his fast-starting, but heavy
BMW.
Indeed, having made the jump at the start, Muller was now having trouble keeping the Proteam 320si of Luca Rangoni behind him, the Italian having been one of the winners at the lights to move up into contention for the final point.
Using his lighter car to out-drag Muller up Brno's various climbs, Rangoni got past, only for the German fight back, getting past at the start of the sixth lap. However, while Rangoni was undeterred, he mis-judged a move on the works car, duly spinning into the gravel trap as he failed to get his car slowed down in time.
Muller was left no rest however as it was soon the Chevrolet Lacetti of Rob Huff, who was making a superb surge through the field from 24th on the grid after being penalised twice from his original fourth fastest time, the Brit duly making the most of his lighter car and the fact that he is traditionally kind to his tyres, to battle his way into eighth place, a point and a pole position for the second race.
