Julien Briché took victory from Dan Lloyd in a chaotic opening TCR Europe race at Monza, which saw championship contenders Mike Halder, Mehdi Bennani and Mat’o Homola all crash out.
The start of the race saw front-row starter Lloyd get a better start than pole-sitter Bennani, who dropped into second at the first chicane.
Further back, Lloyd’s Brutal Fish Racing team-mate Pepe Oriola also made progress, moving past Briché for fourth at the first chicane.
The first dramas then occurred half-way around the first lap when Jimmy Clairet, then running in third, lost the rear of his Peugeot at the first Lesmo corner and slid into the Audi of Bennani, breaking the front-left suspension on Clairet’s car and the front-right suspension on Bennani’s RS3.
Both drivers were out, with Clairet ending the race in the Turn 7 gravel whilst Bennani limped back to the pits.
The dramas allowed Briché to move back past Oriola, the Frenchman being followed by another Peugeot of Teddy Clairet, before the end of the first lap.
Briché then moved into the lead of the race at the first chicane on lap two, passing Lloyd with relative ease as the Honda driver didn’t put up much of a fight to the fast 308 driver.
Further contact came on lap four, when Teddy Clairet and Pepe Oriola touched at Turn 3 whilst battling for the final podium place, with the incident breaking Oriola’s front-left suspension, whilst Clairet continued but in ninth.
That promoted BRC Racing’s Mat’o Homola into third, hotly pursued by the Honda of Mike Halder. The duo circulated in those positions until lap eight when they made contact initially at the first chicane, before race-ending contact at the second chicane as Halder slid into Homola’s Hyundai and broke the front-right suspension on the i30 N TCR.
The high rate of attrition promoted Comtoyou Racing’s Nicolas Baert into the final podium position, the young Belgian having made a fine start to gain three place on the first lap alone.
TCR Italy regular Felice Jelmini was an impressive fourth, although the Hyundai driver was also involved in a fair number of scuffles.
Jelmini notably made contact with Teddy Clairet on lap six when he moved to defend his position, with Clairet sent spearing off sideways into the barriers at the Parabolica and out of the race.
Target Competition’s John Filippi claimed fifth, after losing out to Jelmini at the first chicane on the final lap, ahead of Comtoyou Racing’s Sami Taoufik in sixth.
BRC’s Dániel Nagy was seventh, the Hungarian losing out to both Filippi and Jelmini in quick succession on lap seven and Taoufik on the final lap.
Jessica Bäckman claimed eighth in her Target-run Hyundai, with the top ten being completed by the Hondas of Michelle Halder and Viktor Davidovski.
The high rate of attrition allowed for the Clairet sport Peugeots of Stéphane Ventaja and Gilles Colombani to claim their best results of the season in 11th and 12th respectively, with series returnee Evgenii Leonov in 13th.
Luca Rangoni gave the brand new Tecnodom Sport Fiat Tipo TCR a top fifteen finish in its first competitive race, ahead of team-mate Kevin Giacon in his Audi RS3 LMS TCR.
Brutal Fish Team Principal Martin Ryba was the last of the classified finishers in 16th, taking home a point as the Fiat is not yet homologated and ineligible to score.
Neither Jean-Laurent Navarro not Andreas Bäckman started the race, the former due to engine issues and the latter due to his hand injury from Zolder proving too painful.
Race two is scheduled to get underway at 13:00 CEST (12:00 BST) on Sunday.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 24 | Julien BRICHÉ |  |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 10 | 19:59.256 | 1:58.651 | 4 |
| 2 | 123 | Daniel LLOYD |  |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 10 | 3.225 | 1:59.048 | 2 |
| 3 | 8 | Nicolas BAERT |  |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 10.102 | 1:59.555 | 8 |
| 4 | 44 | Felice JELMINI |  |
PMA Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 10.404 | 1:58.788 | 12 |
| 5 | 27 | John FILIPPI | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 10.601 | 1:59.709 | 10 |
| 6 | 25 | Sami TAOUFIK |  |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 11.241 | 1:59.402 | 19 |
| 7 | 99 | Dániel NAGY |  |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 11.578 | 1:58.868 | 11 |
| 8 | 26 | Jessica BÄCKMAN |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 16.791 | 1:59.779 | 13 |
| 9 | 53 | Michelle HALDER |  |
Profi Car Team Halder | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 10 | 18.888 | 1:59.366 | 14 |
| 10 | 10 | Viktor DAVIDOVSKI |  |
PSS Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 10 | 19.545 | 2:00.215 | 15 |
| 11 | 81 | Stéphane VENTAJA | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 10 | 19.977 | 1:59.887 | 17 |
| 12 | 66 | Gilles COLOMBANI | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 10 | 21.027 | 1:59.915 | 18 |
| 13 | 16 | Evgenii LEONOV |  |
Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 10 | 21.478 | 1:59.014 | 22 |
| 14 | 64 | Luca RANGONI | |
Tecnodom Sport | Fiat Tipo TCR | 10 | 31.539 | 2:00.910 | 20 |
| 15 | 15 | Kevin GIACON | |
Tecnodom Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 42.671 | 2:02.561 | 21 |
| 16 | 17 | Martin RYBA |  |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 10 | 58.634 | 1:59.571 | 16 |
| R | 7 | Mike HALDER | |
Profi Car Team Halder | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 7 | DNF | 1:59.362 | 9 |
| R | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA | |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 7 | DNF | 1:59.275 | 6 |
| R | 20 | Teddy CLAIRET | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 5 | DNF | 1:59.454 | 7 |
| R | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA |  |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 4 | DNF | 1:59.551 | 5 |
| R | 250 | Mehdi BENNANI | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 1 | DNF | 2:27.397 | 1 |
| R | 21 | Jimmy CLAIRET | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 3 |
| NS | 6 | Jean Laurent NAVARRO | |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | – | DNS | N/A | 23 |
| NS | 19 | Andreas BÄCKMAN | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | – | DNS | N/A | – |
