Monlau Motorsport’s Franco Girolami prevailed in a thrilling battle with compatriot Ignacio Montenegro in the opening TCR Europe race at the Salzburgring, holding off the ALM Motorsport driver in a damp race.
Girolami made a good start from pole position and assumed a comfortable lead for the opening two laps, before the safety car was called for on lap two after Sandro Soubek went off in his Audi and needed his car removing from the gravel.
Racing resumed on lap seven, with Montenegro immediately setting about piling the pressure onto fellow Argentine Girolami.
On lap ten, the Honda driver made his move on Girolami for the lead, going around the outside at the bottom Nockstein Curve, and the duo went side-by-side all along the back straight until Montenegro briefly completed the pass at Turn 10.
Girolami then dived back inside at the final chicane, but put a wheel in the gravel and after some rubbing with Montenegro, it was the latter who came across the start-finish straight in front.
However, Girolami copied Montenegro’s pass from a lap prior on the next lap, going around the outside of Montenegro to reclaim the lead.
This time, Montenegro wasn’t able to fight back and Girolami then eked clear of the ALM driver over the remaining four laps to record his second win of the season by just under two seconds.
Montenegro scored his best result yet in the series with second, whilst the podium was completed by his team-mate Ruben Volt, who had made a superb start to leap six places on the opening lap.
SP Compétition’s Aurélien Comte followed GOAT racing’s Felipe Fernández for the opening eight laps, before the Spaniard made a mistake and Comte was able to capitalise and claim fourth.
Fernández made a couple more mistakes before the race was completed, and ALM’s Levente Losonczy thus took fifth ahead of Monlau Motorsport’s Viktor Davidovski in sixth.
Felipe Fernández took the chequered flag in seventh, ahead of brother Rubén Fernández in eighth, whilst the top ten was completed by GOAT Racing’s Santiago Concepcion, who had a poor start, and SP Compétition’s Giovanni Scamardi.
Racew two is scheduled to get underway at 13:00 CEST (12:00 BST).
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 72 |  |
Franco GIROLAMI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 15 | 28:31.319 | 1:32.206 | 1 | |
| 2 | 23 | |
Ignacio MONTENEGRO | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | 1.956 | 1:32.350 | 2 | |
| 3 | 27 |  |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | 4.178 | 1:32.767 | 9 | |
| 4 | 7 |  |
Aurélien COMTE | SP Compétition | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 15 | 4.476 | 1:32.696 | 5 | |
| 5 | 64 |  |
Levente LOSONCZY | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | 6.474 | 1:32.614 | 7 | |
| 6 | 110 |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 15 | 7.333 | 1:33.090 | 11 | |
| 7 | 19 |  |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | 8.965 | 1:32.908 | 6 | |
| 8 | 11 | |
Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | 9.948 | 1:33.225 | 8 | |
| 9 | 33 | |
Santiago CONCEPCIÓN | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | 11.240 | 1:33.357 | 4 | |
| 10 | 34 |  |
Giovanni SCAMARDI | SP Compétition | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 15 | 11.472 | 1:32.670 | 10 | |
| 11 | 10 |  |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 15 | 34.487 | 1:33.682 | 3 | |
| 12 | 8 |  |
Nicola BALDAN | Baldan Group by Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 15 | 38.966 | 1:35.511 | 12 | |
| R | 42 |  |
Sandro SOUBEK | Mair Racing Osttirol | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 1 | DNF | 1:48.948 | 13 |