The victory on the 197km ride from Saint-Gildas-des to Bois Saint-Malo was the second for the Argos-Shimano rider at this year's Tour.
Kittel finished ahead of Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) while Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) was third after a clash of shoulders with Kittel's team-mate Tom Veelers resulted in a crash.
“You could say that it is more satisfying today because all the big sprinters were there at the finish," said Kittel.
"I'm really proud that we won today and that everyone was there for the finale and that I could beat even (Andre) Greipel in close race to the line."
There was no change to the top of the general classification, with race leader Chris Froome (Sky) safely finishing 24th in the stage to retain his lead of 1min 25sec on Alejandro Valverde of Movistar.
A five-man escape was immediately organised to start the race, with Jerome Cousin (Europcar), Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM), Luis Angel (Cofidis), Julien Simon (Sojasun) and Juan José Oroz (Euskaltel) the protagonists.
The quintet of riders were allowed a time gap of five minutes before Omega Pharma-QuickStep, Lotto-Belisol, Cannondale and Argos-Shimano joined forces in the pursuit.
Interest on the stage centred on the green jersey competition, with Cannoldale's Peter Sagan holding a massive 93-point lead over Greipel and Cavendish a further 13 points in arrears.
The break soaked up the intermediate sprint points on offer with Mate leading Westra and Simon across the line in Le Hingle.
As he had done on previous stage, Greipel took the early sprint and the minor points in an attempt to eat into Sagan's lead.
The sole KOM point on Category 4 climb on the Cote de Dinan was collected by a determined Westra.
After the intermediate sprint and KOM points were decided the race again settled into its previous pattern of hunted and hunter.
With the time gap reduced to less than a minute, the cohesion of the break began to shatter when Oroz tested his legs in an unsuccessful attack.
Westra dropped out of the break with less than 20km to go and his former companions were caught 10km later.
CRASH IN SPRINT TO FINISH
Argos-Shimano and Lotto-Belisol dominated the lead-out for the sprint but inside the final 500m Cavendish came off his line and bumped shoulders with Veelers, who crashed.
“You can see that Cavendish really bumped into the handlebar of Tom (Veelers) but it doesn't look like he does it on purpose," said Kittel. "Tom swings off to the right and Cavendish to the left, and it's just very unlucky at that moment."
The rest of the peloton emerged unscathed but the incident was enough to slow Cavendish and riders like Orica-GreenEDGE sprinter Matt Goss.
The British champion attempted to chase down Kittel and Greipel but was forced to watch as another opportunity was lost.
In a flat out drag race to the finish Kittel beat Greipel to the line to claim his second stage win in the Tour de France, after a victory in the opener in Bastia, Corsica.
“This is a big result for me, for the whole team. It's great that we showed, in a sprint of one-against-one, that I can beat him (Greipel) and I'm very proud of it,” said Kittel.
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