Norbert Michelisz secures lights-to-flag Portimão race one win

BRC Racing’s Norbert Michelisz secure a lights-to-flag win in the opening race of the TCR World Tour era at the Autodromo do Algarve, heading Hyundai team-mate Mikel Azcona home.

Michelisz had earlier put his Elantra on pole in qualifying, and the Hungarian duly maintained his advantage throughout the opening race in Portugal to win by just under a second.

At the start, Michelisz reacted well to a quick change of the lights, as Azcona had to hold his line from a challenge by Comtoyou Racing’s Rob Huff.

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Further back, Santiago Urrutia’s race came to an early end when he was hit by Cyan Racing team-mate Yann Ehrlacher at the first corner whilst battling in the lower top ten places.

Urrutia limped back to the pits with front-left damage, after being knocked into contact with Comtoyou’s Tom Coronel in the incident.

Coronel’s half spin dropped him out of the lead of the TCR Europe competitors, handing young team-mate Kobe Pauwels the lead of the class.

The race then entered into a fairly sedate phase, and come the chequered flag there had been little change in the top positions.

Thus Michelisz secured history as the first winner in the TCR World Tour, ahead of Azcona, wit the podium being completed by Huff.

Frédéric Vervisch followed his Comtoyou team-mate home in fourth, ahead of Néstor Girolami in the ALM Motorsport-run Honda Civic Type-R FL5.

Ma Qing Hua was the leading Cyan Racing Lynk & Co driver in sixth, ahead of team-mate Ehrlacher in seventh and Björk in eighth.

John Filippi won the TCR Europe classification as the best-placed non TCR World Tour driver in ninth, whilst the top ten was completed by Pauwels’ Audi.

Coronel recovered to take 11^th after his opening lap slide, ahead of Dušan Borković in 12^th – despite the Target Competition driver having been elbowed off the track by newcomer Viktor Andersson in the early laps.

Race two gets underway at 11:30 WEST / BST (12:30 CEST) on Sunday.

Race results

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP	GD
1	105	WT		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	12	22:38.708	1:52.446	1
2	196	WT		Mikel AZCONA	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	12	0.705	1:52.319	2
3	179	WT		Rob HUFF	Audi Sport Team Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	12	1.710	1:52.372	3
4	122	WT		Frédéric VERVISCH	Audi Sport Team Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	12	4.458	1:52.361	4
5	129	WT		Néstor GIROLAMI	ALM Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	12	4.859	1:52.705	5
6	155	WT		MA Qing Hua	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	12	9.407	1:52.959	6
7	168	WT		Yann EHRLACHER	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	12	13.168	1:53.195	11
8	111	WT		Thed BJÖRK	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	12	14.512	1:53.417	8
9	27	EU		John FILIPPI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	12	17.796	1:53.713	12
10	22	EU		Kobe PAUWELS	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	12	22.769	1:53.540	9
11	34	EU		Tom CORONEL	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	12	24.079	1:53.491	7
12	62	EU		Dušan BORKOVIĆ	Target Competition	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	12	26.449	1:53.838	14
13	11	EU		Viktor DAVIDOVSKI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	12	26.952	1:53.742	13
14	23	EU		Isaac SMITH	Volcano Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	12	30.348	1:54.157	18
15	19	EU		Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil	RC2 Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	12	31.703	1:54.429	16
16	8	EU		Nicola BALDAN	Aggressive Team Italia	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	12	32.965	1:54.385	21
17	71	EU		Ben BARGWANNA	Team Clairet Sport – Burson Auto Parts Racing	Peugeot 308 TCR	12	37.128	1:54.466	19
18	12	EU		Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil	RC2 Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	12	37.639	1:54.971	20
19	39	EU		Lewis BROWN	Volcano Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	12	42.432	1:54.158	17
20	48	EU		Mikael KARLSSON	Aggressive Team Italia	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	11	+ 1 LAP	1:55.311	22
21	10	EU		Viktor ANDERSSON	MA:GP	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	9	+ 3 LAPS	1:53.336	15
R	112	WT		Santiago URRUTIA	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR	1	DNF	3:23.809	10