Yann Ehrlacher led a Cyan Racing 1-2-3 in the reversed-grid opening race of the weekend at Estoril, though in typical FIA World Touring Car Cup fashion, there was plenty of action and drama throughout the grid.
As the cars lined up on the grid, cooler, more cloudy conditions greeted the drivers, compared to the high temperatures that they all qualified in. As such, getting heat into the tyres on the warm-up lap would be that bit more important.
However, as Gabriele Tarquini led the field around from reversed-grid pole, he circulated at a very slow pace in the final sector, which potentially could have seen him come under the wrath of the stewards later on.
Nevertheless, Tarquini made a good start on the outside line of the front row of the grid, but not as good as that of Ehrlacher, who swept by on the inside into turn one.
Just behind however, Néstor Girolami out-braked himself, leading to contact with Norbert Michelisz who then tapped Attila Tassi into a half-spin. As the pack bunched together, this resulted in further drama over the next few corners, resulting in a three-way tussle between Tom Coronel, Rob Huff and championship leader Jean-Karl Vernay. The net result was that Vernay had to return to the pits with a puncture, while contact forced Coronel into the gravel and to the back of the field.
The race got back underway on lap four, and Tiago Monteiro was immediately keen to make further progress up the order. Having started ninth, the Portuguese ace had Santiago Urrutia in his sights for fourth place.
After receiving a radio message to tell him that Esteban Guerrieri would not challenge him for fifth, Monteiro had licence to focus entirely on attacking the car ahead. A move around the outside at turn one on lap five didn’t quite materialise, but Urrutia remained a sitting duck.
Further back, a recovering Luca Engstler was also engaged in a tough battle with the CUPRA contingent of Huff and Jordi Gené. Meanwhile, Tarquini was on the move too in the other remaining Hyundai.
The Italian’s Elantra N TCR looked marginally quicker than the race leading Lynk & Co of Ehrlacher, meaning that the reigning champion wouldn’t have an easy time out at front.
Tassi, too, was on the charge, having also lost out at the start. This time the Honda driver had more luck against one of the Cyan Racing competitors at turn one, as the young Hungarian dived ahead of Thed Björk for eighth on the inside line.
But then, disaster struck in the battle for the lead. Polesitter Tarquini was dealt a front-right puncture, and so with Ehrlacher’s team-mates Yvan Muller and Urrutia now having been elevated into second and third, things were looking much more comfortable for Lynk & Co.
With just a third of the race left to go, Guerrieri’s patience began to run out, and so he asked to be let past fellow Honda driver Monteiro to have a go at Urrutia for third. However, Monteiro was having none of it, and refused to let the Argentine by for the next two laps. In the end though, the local driver conceded, leaving Guerrieri just two full laps to get by Urrutia.
By this point though, the Cyan Racing driver had pulled away from the two Honda stablemates, giving Guerrieri a mountain to climb.
Further back, Engstler’s midfield mania was carrying on as the battle for tenth heated up. At Lamy curve, the German dived to the inside of Nathanaël Berthon, but ran too deep into the corner, thus compromising the pace of the pair of them. As a result this allowed Huff to make an opportunistic overtake past the pair of them for that final top ten spot.
Back with the leaders, Ehrlacher came home to claim his first race win of the season and the fastest lap of the race, with Muller and Urrutia tailing behind to lock out the podium for Cyan Racing Lynk & Co.
As agreed, Guerrieri conceded again to Monteiro on the line, allowing the Portuguese to take fourth place and with it the lead of the championship points standings.
In sixth, Mikel Azcona put on a hugely impressive display to avoid the chaos and maximise the potential from his hamstrung CUPRA, having narrowly fended off Tassi in seventh.
Björk would cross the line in eighth ahead of the first Audi driver, Gilles Magnus in ninth. The battle for tenth would indeed go the way of Huff, with Berthon and Engstler making do with eleventh and twelfth place respectively.
Frédéric Vervisch picked up his best result of the season so far in thirteenth, as did Gené and Andreas Bäckman who picked up their first championship points of the season.
Race Two gets underway later this afternoon at 15:15 local time (15:15 BST, 16:15 CEST), where the rivalry between Honda’s Guerrieri and Monteiro will be reignited on the front row of the grid.
Race results
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
| 1 | 68 |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 15 | 28:28.096 | 1:45.384 | 2 | |
| 2 | 100 | |
Yvan MULLER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 15 | 1.746 | 1:45.995 | 3 | |
| 3 | 12 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 15 | 3.411 | 1:46.504 | 4 | |
| 4 | 18 |  |
Tiago MONTEIRO | ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 15 | 4.960 | 1:46.505 | 9 | |
| 5 | 86 |  |
Esteban GUERRIERI | ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 15 | 5.369 | 1:46.421 | 10 | |
| 6 | 96 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 15 | 8.220 | 1:46.629 | 13 | |
| 7 | 9 |  |
Attila TASSI | ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 15 | 8.650 | 1:46.528 | 6 | |
| 8 | 11 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 15 | 10.848 | 1:46.725 | 12 | |
| 9 | 16 |  |
Gilles MAGNUS | Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 15 | 14.088 | 1:46.617 | 15 | |
| 10 | 79 |  |
Rob HUFF | Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 15 | 16.651 | 1:46.998 | 17 | |
| 11 | 17 | |
Nathanaël BERTHON | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 15 | 19.214 | 1:46.421 | 14 | |
| 12 | 8 |  |
Luca ENGSTLER | Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 19.360 | 1:46.627 | 11 | |
| 13 | 22 | |
Frédéric VERVISCH | Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 15 | 21.118 | 1:46.519 | 16 | |
| 14 | 28 | |
Jordi GENÉ | Zengő Motorsport Drivers’ Academy | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 15 | 22.500 | 1:46.651 | 21 | |
| 15 | 19 | |
Andreas BÄCKMAN | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 25.079 | 1:47.112 | 19 | |
| 16 | 26 | |
Jessica BÄCKMAN | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 26.858 | 1:46.980 | 20 | |
| 17 | 32 |  |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 15 | 27.690 | 1:46.739 | 18 | |
| 18 | 55 | |
Bence BOLDIZS | Zengő Motorsport Drivers’ Academy | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 14 | + 1 LAP | 1:47.660 | 22 | |
| R | 3 |  |
Gabriele TARQUINI | BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | DNF | 1:45.489 | 1 | |
| R | 5 | |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 6 | DNF | 1:46.441 | 5 | |
| R | 69 | |
Jean-Karl VERNAY | Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 2 | DNF | N/A | 7 | |
| R | 29 | |
Néstor GIROLAMI | ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 8 |