Ma Qing Hua ensured it was another Cyan Racing victory in the second race of the TCR World Tour and TCR South America races at El Pinar, claiming a lights-to-flag victory in a race twice interrupted by safety cars.
Ma had started the reverse-grid race from pole position, and the Lynk & Co driver held the advantage at the start, in part helped when BRC Racing’s Mikel Azcona tapped and unsettled the other front-row Cyan car of Yann Ehrlacher heading into the first corner.
Azcona’s tap allowed his Hyundai into second, and thereafter the order at the front went unchanged, although reigning FIA WTCR champion Azcona did close in on Ma in the final laps.
Ma had to manage two safety car restarts. The first intervention came when a tyre stack was dislodged and had to be repositioned, and the second came when PMO Racing’s Gonzalo Reilly went off on lap 17 and his Peugeot had to be recovered.
Ehrlacher held on to complete the podium, and with it the Frenchman continues to lead the TCR World Tour standings, now by an extended 20 points over Norbert Michelisz.
Having gained a place past Squadra Martino’s Juan Manuel Casella at the start, Comtoyou Racing duo Rob Huff and Frédéric Vervisch had a relatively quiet race thereafter, and the pair took fourth and fifth places respectively.
There was more fighting in the lower half of the top ten. Michelisz had held sixth for much of the race, but lost out late on in an incident with Néstor Girolami and Thed Björk.
Earlier in the race, Björk had moved up to seventh when team-mate Santiago Urrutia tried a pass on Girolami on the third lap, with the latter losing two places in the process.
But Girolami had strong pace in his Honda and by lap 11 was back past Björk and in seventh. The Argentine then tried to pass Michelisz for sixth at the final corner hairpin on lap 16, but there was slight contact.
That allowed Björk to draw alongside and past, but as the trio went down the start-finish straight there was contact three times between Björk and Michelisz, unsettling the latter and dropping him behind Urrutia to eighth.
Girolami finished in ninth and last of the TCR World Tour runners after the incident.
However, after the race, the stewards decided that Björk was responsible for causing a collision and handed the Swede a five-second time penalty, dropping him to ninth and promoting Urrutia to sixth, Michelisz to seventh and Girolami to eighth.
The top ten was completed by the leading TCR South America car of series newcomer Esteban Guerrieri, marking a strong first appearance for the new Bratton Tito Bessone Team and its Toyota Corolla TCR.
The leading full-season TCR South America racer was Paladini Racing’s Juan Ángel Rosso in 11th, although until lap ten it had been Casella followed by Ignacio Montenegro, before the latter lost a wheel and had to retire from the race.
Montenegro’s retirement didn’t see him lose his points lead, but with Casella finishing in 13th (fourth in TCR South America) he has closed to 41 points from Montenegro.
Revised race results
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 155 | WT |  |
MA Qing Hua | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 21 | 32:14.778 | 1:21.002 | 1 |
| 2 | 196 | WT |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 21 | 0.685 | 1:20.797 | 3 |
| 3 | 168 | WT |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 21 | 2.344 | 1:21.244 | 2 |
| 4 | 179 | WT |  |
Rob HUFF | Audi Sport Team Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 21 | 3.160 | 1:21.500 | 5 |
| 5 | 122 | WT |  |
Frédéric VERVISCH | Audi Sport Team Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 21 | 3.587 | 1:21.554 | 6 |
| 6 | 112 | WT |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 21 | 4.925 | 1:21.250 | 10 |
| 7 | 105 | WT |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 21 | 5.469 | 1:21.497 | 7 |
| 8 | 129 | WT |  |
Néstor GIROLAMI | Squadra Martino Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 21 | 6.082 | 1:20.968 | 8 |
| 9 | 111 | WT |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 21 | 9.304 | 1:20.965 | 9 |
| 10 | 86 | SA | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | Bratton Tito Bessone Team | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 21 | 10.594 | 1:21.832 | 12 |
| 11 | 2 | SA | |
Juan Ángel ROSSO | Paladini Racing | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 21 | 12.351 | 1:22.176 | 13 |
| 12 | 8 | SA |  |
Rafael SUZUKI | PMO Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 21 | 12.933 | 1:22.435 | 15 |
| 13 | 60 | SA | |
Juan Manuel CASELLA | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 21 | 13.432 | 1:22.118 | 4 |
| 14 | 24 | SA | |
Frederick BALBI | PMO Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 21 | 13.721 | 1:22.517 | 16 |
| 15 | 77 | SA | |
Raphael REIS | W2 Pro GP | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 21 | 14.466 | 1:22.507 | 17 |
| 16 | 17 | SA | |
Bernardo LLAVER | Toyota Team Argentina | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 21 | 14.694 | 1:22.588 | 18 |
| 17 | 28 | SA | |
Galid OSMAN | W2 Pro GP | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 21 | 14.924 | 1:22.351 | 14 |
| 18 | 70 | SA | |
Diego NUNES | Cobra Racing Team | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 21 | 15.676 | 1:22.443 | 20 |
| 19 | 1 | SA | |
Fabricio PEZZINI | Paladini Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 21 | 17.043 | 1:23.118 | 21 |
| 20 | 5 | SA | |
Fabián YANNANTUONI | Paladini Racing | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 21 | 19.039 | 1:22.983 | 19 |
| 21 | 33 | SA | |
José Manuel SAPAG | Toyota Team Argentina | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 21 | 20.303 | 1:23.187 | 23 |
| 22 | 43 | SA | |
Pedro CARDOSO | Scuderia Chiarelli | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 21 | 21.404 | 1:23.160 | 26 |
| 23 | 34 | T | |
Fabio CASAGRANDE | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 21 | 23.794 | 1:24.536 | 24 |
| 24 | 10 | T | |
Adalberto BAPTISTA | Cobra Racing Team | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 21 | 26.131 | 1:24.660 | 22 |
| 25 | 13 | T | |
Carlos SILVA | Alfa Racing | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 21 | 27.204 | 1:25.566 | 27 |
| 26 | 15 | T | |
Enrique MAGLIONE | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 18 | + 3 LAPS | 1:23.182 | 28 |
| R | 35 | SA | |
Gonzalo REILLY | PMO Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 16 | DNF | 1:23.515 | 25 |
| R | 23 | SA | |
Ignacio MONTENEGRO | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 13 | DNF | 1:22.058 | 11 |
| NS | 90 | SA | |
Michell BONNIN | Alfa Racing | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | – | DNS | N/A | – |
| NS | 36 | SA | |
Damián FINESCHI | PMO Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | – | DNS | N/A | – |