Franco Griolami held off championship leader Mikel Azcona to claim a dramatic win in the opening race of TCR Europe at Monza.
Girolami, who had started the race from pole, was seemingly set for a comfortable victory after managing his lead at the front of the field, but a late charge from Azcona saw the pair end the race nose to tail.
Azcona – who had started race one of the weekend down in seventh – gradually moved himself up through the drivers ahead, with the Spaniard also benefiting from a puncture for Felice Jelmini, who had been running second until lap eight.
After earlier getting the better of Tom Coronel into turn one on lap seven, Azcona then had Girolami in his sights after the Argentine ran wide at turn 10 two laps later.
As a result, Azcona closed on the PSS Racing driver, with the two making contact several times while going side by side for a large amount of the final lap.
This included into the very last corner, with Girolami forcing Azcona wide at the Parabolica that saw him gain enough of an advantage to cross the line just ahead of the Spaniard.
A rather chaotic ten lap race had in the opening stages saw front row starter Jack Young suffer a puncture that forced the Honda driver into the pits and ultimately out of the race, before Brutal Fish Racing was to suffer more problems in the later stages.
Young’s teammate Isidro Callejas, who had started fifth, also had a dramatic opening race of the weekend.
Firstly he was tapped wide at the first Lesmo corner on the opening lap before he was then involved in another incident after being hit by Jáchym Galáš on lap four after he was unable to stop his Hyundai going into turn one, with the damage forcing both to reitre from the race as a result.
Brutal Fish team owner Martin Ryba was also spun out of the race at the second Lesmo on the opening lap, making light contact with the barriers.
Behind the leading trio of drivers, a close battle also took place with Jimmy Clairet holding off Sami Taoufik, Mat’o Homola and Dušan Borković to claim fourth.
All four drivers were involved in a battle during the second half of the race, with Borković having earlier been forced to drop positions due to being slow out of turn two on lap eight.
Nicolas Baert ended race one of the weekend in eighth, with Viktor Davidovski, who had started the race down in 16th, made the most of drivers falling back ahead of him to cross the finish line in ninth.
Niels Langeveld, as like with Davidovski ahead, made the most of the action ahead and completed the top 10 after he had earlier started the race down in 19th, while Bartosz Groszek was the highest placed debutant in 11th ahead of RCZ Junior Team’s Rubén Fernández.
Race two of the weekend is set to take place at 13:30 CEST (12:30 BST).
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 72 |  |
Franco GIROLAMI | PSS Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 10 | 19:51.927 | 1:58.220 | 1 | |
| 2 | 96 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 10 | 0.222 | 1:57.333 | 7 | |
| 3 | 32 |  |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 1.058 | 1:58.344 | 4 | |
| 4 | 21 |  |
Jimmy CLAIRET | Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 10 | 6.874 | 1:58.525 | 8 | |
| 5 | 25 |  |
Sami TAOUFIK | Sébastien Loeb Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | 6.944 | 1:57.943 | 15 | |
| 6 | 70 |  |
Mat’o HOMOLA | Janík Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 7.419 | 1:58.104 | 9 | |
| 7 | 162 |  |
Dušan BORKOVIĆ | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 8.536 | 1:59.078 | 6 | |
| 8 | 8 |  |
Nicolas BAERT | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 11.762 | 1:58.613 | 10 | |
| 9 | 110 |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | PSS Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 10 | 18.023 | 1:58.842 | 16 | |
| 10 | 10 | |
Niels LANGEVELD | Sébastien Loeb Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | 19.691 | 1:59.151 | 18 | |
| 11 | 97 |  |
Bartosz GROSZEK | Horňak-Aditis Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 19.955 | 1:59.294 | 12 | |
| 12 | 5 | |
Rubén FERNÁNDEZ | RC2 Junior Team | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 10 | 21.027 | 1:59.600 | 22 | |
| 13 | 16 |  |
Evgenii LEONOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 10 | 22.970 | 1:59.432 | 27 | |
| 14 | 81 |  |
Damiano REDUZZI | Trico WRT | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 25.817 | 2:00.129 | 24 | |
| 15 | 14 | |
Klim GAVRILOV | VRC-Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 27.298 | 1:59.489 | 17 | |
| 16 | 66 | |
Gilles COLOMBANI | Team Clairet Sport | CUPRA TCR | 10 | 35.099 | 2:00.581 | 23 | |
| 17 | 11 |  |
Gustav BIRCH | Brian Madsen Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 10 | 37.438 | 2:00.514 | 25 | |
| 18 | 53 | |
Lukas STOLARCZYK | BTC Maszyny | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 45.632 | 2:01.312 | 28 | |
| 19 | 38 |  |
Petr ČÍŽEK | Horňak-Aditis Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 46.355 | 2:01.025 | 26 | |
| 20 | 77 | |
Sylvain PUSSIER | Team Clairet Sport | CUPRA TCR | 10 | 1:27.466 | 2:00.059 | 20 | |
| 21 | 250 | |
Mehdi BENNANI | Sébastien Loeb Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 9 | + 1 LAP | 1:59.651 | 19 | |
| R | 44 | |
Felice JELMINI | Sébastien Loeb Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 7 | DNF | 1:58.348 | 3 | |
| R | 101 |  |
Sergio LÓPEZ | RC2 Junior Team | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 7 | DNF | 1:58.894 | 21 | |
| R | 20 | |
Teddy CLAIRET | Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 4 | DNF | 1:59.830 | 14 | |
| R | 26 | |
Isidro CALLEJAS | Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 3 | DNF | 1:59.350 | 5 | |
| R | 24 | |
Jáchym GALÁŠ | Janík Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 3 | DNF | 1:59.666 | 11 | |
| R | 62 |  |
Jack YOUNG | Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 3 | DNF | 2:11.818 | 2 | |
| R | 17 | |
Martin RYBA | Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 2 | DNF | 2:12.782 | 13 |