Ignacio Montenegro fought his way to a maiden victory in the final TCR Europe race of the weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, battling past team-mate Levente Losonczy for the win.
At the start, reverse-grid pole-sitter Giovanni Scamardi stalled his CUPRA, which immediately allowed Losonczy, from alongside on the front-row, to take the lead.
Further back, Montenegro followed the Hungarian into second, whilst MA:GP’s Viktor Andersson got by Santiago Concepción to take fourth into the La Source hairpin.
Montenegro then dived inside Losonczy to take the lead into the first corner at the start of the second lap, and the young Argentine didn’t look back thereafter, going on to score his first win by over four seconds.
Andersson took second, but the Lynk & Co driver did so with a pass on Losonczy at Les Combes which involved him cutting the corner after being forced to the edge of the circuit.
Losonczy held on to completed the podium, with his third visit to the rostrum this season. However, it was not plain sailing for the Hungarian, who was tapped by Aurélien Comte and passed for the place into La Source on the penultimate lap, followed by Franco Girolami, before regaining the place along the Kemmel Straight as the title-chasing duo battled ahead.
Comtoyou Racing’s Nicola Baldan took fourth after a late-race charge in the sole Audi in the field. Baldan had been ninth on the start of lap four, but dived inside Concepción at Les Combes on that lap, albeit with having to take to cut the corner, to go up to eighth.
He then took Ruben Volt, who had been slowed by a failed attempt for fifth on Girolami, for seventh heading towards Raidillon, with the Estonian racer having his hands full with the GOAT Racing Hondas of Concepción and Felipe Fernández.
The lap six safety car intervention, called due to debris on circuit, bunched the field up, and Baldan got by Eric Gené at Les Combes, as the later spun out.
Baldan was quickly past Comte for fifth on the same lap, and took Girolami for fourth on the next lap, where he stayed to the finish.
Rain on the final lap of the race caught out Girolami, who dropped to eighth, whilst Gené crashed out and sustained heavy damage to the front-right of his CUPRA.
In the late-race dramas, Felipe Fernández charged up to fifth, finishing ahead of Comte in sixth, Volt in seventh and Girolami in eighth.
The top ten was completed by Concepción and pole-sitter Scamardi.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 23 |  |
Ignacio MONTENEGRO | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 9 | 24:44.466 | 2:30.312 | 3 | |
| 2 | 10 |  |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 9 | 4.107 | 2:30.847 | 5 | |
| 3 | 64 |  |
Levente LOSONCZY | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 9 | 5.743 | 2:30.946 | 2 | |
| 4 | 8 |  |
Nicola BALDAN | Baldan Group by Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 9 | 6.081 | 2:31.049 | 14 | |
| 5 | 19 |  |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 9 | 7.658 | 2:29.949 | 10 | |
| 6 | 7 |  |
Aurélien COMTE | SP Compétition | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 9 | 9.683 | 2:30.634 | 8 | |
| 7 | 27 |  |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 9 | 10.648 | 2:30.853 | 9 | |
| 8 | 72 | |
Franco GIROLAMI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 9 | 11.042 | 2:31.108 | 7 | |
| 9 | 33 | |
Santiago CONCEPCIÓN | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 9 | 11.047 | 2:30.770 | 4 | |
| 10 | 34 |  |
Giovanni SCAMARDI | SP Compétition | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 9 | 11.759 | 2:31.864 | 1 | |
| 11 | 16 | |
Jimmy CLAIRET | Baldan Group by Comtoyou | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 9 | 12.217 | 2:31.797 | 13 | |
| 12 | 110 |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 9 | 12.903 | 2:32.011 | 11 | |
| R | 21 | |
Eric GENÉ | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 8 | DNF | 2:30.905 | 12 | |
| R | 11 | |
Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 6 | DNF | 2:33.519 | 6 |