Néstor Girolami ensured Hyundai left Vallelunga with both victories in the opening FIA TCR World Tour event of the season at Vallelunga, after holding off Cyan Racing’s Santiago Urrutia in the reverse-grid race.
Girolami started from pole, having been tenth fastest in Saturday’s qualifying session, and had Urrutia alongside him for the start of the race.
Despite the BRC Racing driver not making the best of starts, he was able to hold off the Lynk & Co of Urrutia for the lead.
Further back, Coppa Italia racers Victor Fernández and Filippo Barberi appeared to jump the start, with Barberi surging through the order towards the World Tour drivers from 15th on the grid.
However, through the fast Turn 3, the Italian made contact with Volcano Motorsport’s Sami Taoufik, and the pair were out of the race, with both cars stranded on the circuit.
In the dramas, Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher also picked up damage to the front of his Lynk & Co, with the safety car being deployed at the end of the lap.
Racing resumed on lap four, but only lasted a lap. Fernández lost control of his Audi through the fast Turn 3, hitting the barriers on the exit and requiring another two lap safety car intervention.
At the second restart on lap eight, Girolami eased clear of Urrutia, with GOAT Racing’s Marco Butti in third quickly becoming a bottleneck for the chasing pack, which included Cyan’s Ma Qing Hua, GOAT’s Esteban Guerrieri and Hyundai’s Mikel Azcona.
On lap 11, Guerrieri made a late lunge on Ma for fourth at the Turn 12 hairpin, resulting in contact, and he completed the pass at the final corner.
Having lost momentum, Ma was then muscled out by Azcona going onto the next lap, with Thed Björk, Norbert Michelisz and John Filippi following through in quick succession, leaving the Chinese racer down in ninth.
At the front, there was little pressure for Girolami, who won with Hyundai for the first time, by over three seconds from Urrutia, who in turn was over eight seconds clear of Butti.
Guerrieri then tried to pile the pressure onto team-mate Butti for the final podium position, but the Argentine couldn’t find a way through and had to settle for fourth.
Azcona was fifth ahead of Björk, Michelisz and Filippi. The top ten was completed by Ma and the leading Coppa Italia car of Sandro Pelatti.
Ehrlacher was shown the black and orange flag on lap nine for the damage to his bonnet, requiring the Frenchman to pit, dropping him to the back of the field. Putting in a series of quick laps in clear air, the Cyan Racing driver eventually recovered to finish in 14th.
MM Motorsport’s Jacopo Cimenes failed to make the start, his Honda having to be pushed off the grid after failing to get away for the formation lap.
The next FIA TCR World Tour event is on the streets of Marrakech in Morocco on 3 – 4 May.
Race results
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
| 1 | 129 |  |
Néstor GIROLAMI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 17 | 35:17.984 | 1:40.417 | 1 | |
| 2 | 112 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 17 | 3.237 | 1:40.578 | 2 | |
| 3 | 199 |  |
Marco BUTTI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 17 | 11.683 | 1:41.693 | 5 | |
| 4 | 186 | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 17 | 12.034 | 1:41.617 | 8 | |
| 5 | 196 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 17 | 12.548 | 1:41.514 | 7 | |
| 6 | 111 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 17 | 13.668 | 1:41.548 | 6 | |
| 7 | 105 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 17 | 14.245 | 1:41.585 | 10 | |
| 8 | 127 |  |
John FILIPPI | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 17 | 16.508 | 1:41.767 | 3 | |
| 9 | 155 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 17 | 17.086 | 1:41.695 | 4 | |
| 10 | 1 | |
Sandro PELATTI | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 17 | 32.100 | 1:43.106 | 14 | |
| 11 | 5 |  |
Demir ERÖGE | Aikoa Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 17 | 52.071 | 1:43.633 | 16 | |
| 12 | 77 |  |
Philipp MATTERSDORFER | Duller Motorsport | Opel Astra TCR | 17 | 53.267 | 1:45.051 | 17 | |
| 13 | 34 | |
Ramazan KAYA | BF Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 17 | 53.887 | 1:44.341 | 20 | |
| 14 | 168 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 17 | 55.673 | 1:41.402 | 9 | |
| 15 | 4 | |
Giulio VALENTINI | GRT Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 1:33.413 | 1:46.730 | 19 | |
| 16 | 39 |  |
Tony VERHULST | MM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 15 | + 2 LAPS | 1:45.183 | 18 | |
| R | 41 | |
Victor FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 3 | DNF | 1:53.280 | 13 | |
| R | 212 |  |
Sami TAOUFIK | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 0 | DNF | N/A | 12 | |
| R | 15 | |
Filippo BARBERI | Aikoa Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 0 | DNF | N/A | 15 | |
| NS | 82 | |
Jacopo CIMENES | MM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | – | DNS | N/A | 11 |