Jack Young took a comfortable win in the opening TCR Europe race at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya, heading home fellow front-row starter Tom Coronel.
Young had earlier scored a dominant pole position to beat Comtoyou Racing’s Coronel to the top time by over four tenths of a second.
At the start of the race, the Halder Motorsport driver made a good getaway from the line, and eased to an unchallenged win thereafter. The Northern Irishman held a lead of half a second by the end of the first lap, extending it to just over a second by lap nine.
In the end, Coronel had to settle for second – his fifth podium of the year – and moved up to third overall in the drivers’ standings as a result.
The podium was completed by new champion Franco Girolami, the Comtoyou Racing driver having moved into the position with a better start than third-placed Isidro Callejas on the run away from the start line.
Girolami’s team-mate Frédéric Vervisch also got by Callejas at the start, and the Belgian then held station behind the Audi ahead to claim fourth on his début in the series.
Callejas never gained back the ground he lost at the start, and the Volcano Motorsport driver had to settle for fifth as the leading CUPRA in a race which was relatively tame by the standards of the series.
Janík Motorsport’s Jáchym Galáš got ahead of Target Competition’s Nicola Baldan at the start to claim the best finishing position for a Hyundai driver.
Aggressive Team Italia’s Pepe Oriola had briefly taken seventh at the first corner, but the Spaniard did so by cutting the corner and he was ordered by the stewards to give the place back to Baldan, doing so a lap later.
Oriola thereafter never got back by, leaving Baldan to take seventh and Oriola in eighth.
Target’s Josh Files made it four Hyundais in a row with ninth, the Brit and erstwhile title contender climbing from the back of the grid to 14th by the end of the opening lap.
He picked off Marco Butti on the following lap, and was up another place when Michelle Halder was tapped into a spin by Felipe Fernández.
Having passed Sébastien Loeb Racing’s John Filippi on lap three, Files then followed Mike Halder for three laps before passing the Honda driver for tenth, finally gaining ninth past Klim Gavrilov a lap later.
Mike Halder completed the top ten, the German having also got by Russian Gavrilov in the closing laps, with Gavrilov taking the chequered flag in 12th having lost out to Filippi as well.
Felipe Fernández was the only retirement of the race, pulling off after three laps with a problem on his Audi. Giacomo Ghermandi also spun on the last lap, having been hit by Rubén Fernández.
Race two is scheduled to get underway at 12:05 CEST (11:05 BST) on Sunday.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 62 |  |
Jack YOUNG | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 12 | 23:25.388 | 1:55.407 | 1 | |
| 2 | 33 |  |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 0.993 | 1:55.580 | 2 | |
| 3 | 72 |  |
Franco GIROLAMI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 12.430 | 1:56.898 | 4 | |
| 4 | 22 |  |
Frédéric VERVISCH | Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 13.043 | 1:56.491 | 5 | |
| 5 | 26 |  |
Isidro CALLEJAS | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 12 | 13.946 | 1:56.609 | 3 | |
| 6 | 24 |  |
Jáchym GALÁŠ | Hyundai Janík Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 16.081 | 1:57.047 | 7 | |
| 7 | 8 |  |
Nicola BALDAN | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 18.679 | 1:57.348 | 6 | |
| 8 | 74 | |
Pepe ORIOLA | Aggressive Team Italia Asd | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 19.226 | 1:57.539 | 8 | |
| 9 | 99 | |
Josh FILES | Target Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 22.074 | 1:57.476 | 22 | |
| 10 | 7 |  |
Mike HALDER | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 12 | 23.042 | 1:57.452 | 11 | |
| 11 | 27 |  |
John FILIPPI | Sébastien Loeb Racing – Bardahl Team | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 12 | 27.243 | 1:57.701 | 9 | |
| 12 | 14 |  |
Klim GAVRILOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 12 | 28.102 | 1:57.510 | 12 | |
| 13 | 111 | |
Marco BUTTI | Élite Motorsport by Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 28.499 | 1:57.810 | 15 | |
| 14 | 10 | |
Alejandro GEPPERT | Teo Martín Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 30.985 | 1:58.234 | 17 | |
| 15 | 110 |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 33.715 | 1:58.030 | 20 | |
| 16 | 53 | |
Michelle HALDER | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 12 | 45.229 | 1:57.997 | 10 | |
| 17 | 37 |  |
Sergio LÓPEZ | Auto Club RC2 Valles | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 12 | 47.133 | 1:58.797 | 14 | |
| 18 | 16 | |
Evgenii LEONOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 12 | 47.446 | 1:57.310 | 13 | |
| 19 | 12 | |
Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 48.701 | 1:59.007 | 16 | |
| 20 | 4 |  |
Samuel SLÁDEČKA | Hyundai Janík Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 59.256 | 1:59.130 | 19 | |
| 21 | 3 | |
Giacomo GHERMANDI | Lema Racing | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 12 | 1:20.078 | 1:58.699 | 21 | |
| R | 19 | |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 3 | 9 Laps | 1:58.573 | 18 |