Yann Ehrlacher took victory in the opening FIA TCR World Tour race at El Pinar in Uruguay, finishing ahead of BRC Racing’s Mikel Azcona in a race which saw several incidents.
Racing took place on a dry track following much wet running in the days previous, but that didn’t prevent there being incidents from the off.
When the lights went out, as the front-runners made clean getaways, further back there was drama in the mid-pack.
GOAT Racing’s Marco Butti, from 12th on the grid, moved over on Squadra Martino’s Juan Manuel Casella, who in turn was pushed against team-mate Norberto Fontana and Cyan Racing’s Ma Qing Hua as cars went four-wide along the start straight.
Butti ended up being turned in front of Casella, along with Fontana the other way, and Butti was spat out into the barriers and out of the race.
A three-lap safety car intervention was required to clear his Honda, along with the Toyota of Thiago Vivacqua, who had contact in a separate incident two corners further along.
Ehrlacher pulled a margin of over half a second on Azcona in the next phase of the race, but the safety car would be required again on lap 11 to recover Galid Osman’s stricken CUPRA, the W2 Pro GP driver having hit Fontana and ended both drivers races on the tenth lap.
The hiatus in racing was shorter this time, with just one lap behind the safety car. As racing resumed, Ehrlacher quickly opened a gap on Azcona and went on to record his third victory of the season, six tenths ahead of Azcona.
Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk completed the podium, the Swede having got into fourth ahead of BRC’s Néstor Girolami at the start. He then took third from the other BRC Hyundai of Norbert Michelisz into the final corner on the restart lap, and settled into place thereafter.
Santiago Urrutia brought his Lynk & Co home in fourth, the home hero pulling off a feisty move on Michelisz into the heavy braking zone of the final corner three laps from the end. The move was not without a tap though, which allowed Ma Qing Hua and Esteban Guerrieri to follow through, Michelisz dropping to eighth.
However, Michelisz fought back to fifth in the closing laps, thanks to some sporting team-play from team-mate Girolami, who was sixth.
GOAT Racing’s Guerrieri was seventh, ahead of the leading TCR South America driver of Pedro Cardoso in eighth.
Ma dropped down the order in the final two laps after contact with Guerrieri, finishing in 15th.
Race two is scheduled to get underway at 15:25 local time (19:25 BST, 20:25 CEST).
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 168 | WT |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 17 | 27:31.951 | 1:20.699 | 1 |
| 2 | 196 | WT |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 17 | 0.687 | 1:20.768 | 2 |
| 3 | 111 | WT |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 17 | 2.639 | 1:20.886 | 5 |
| 4 | 112 | WT |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 17 | 6.255 | 1:21.254 | 6 |
| 5 | 105 | WT |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 17 | 10.638 | 1:21.199 | 3 |
| 6 | 129 | WT |  |
Néstor GIROLAMI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 17 | 10.734 | 1:21.247 | 4 |
| 7 | 186 | WT | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 17 | 10.979 | 1:21.438 | 7 |
| 8 | 43 | SA |  |
Pedro CARDOSO | PMO Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 17 | 12.927 | 1:22.257 | 9 |
| 9 | 16 | SA | |
Juan Ángel ROSSO | Paladini Racing | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 17 | 13.867 | 1:22.461 | 11 |
| 10 | 17 | SA | |
Matías ROSSI | Toyota Team Argentina | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 17 | 14.599 | 1:22.268 | 10 |
| 11 | 62 | WT |  |
Dušan BORKOVIĆ | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 17 | 14.912 | 1:22.050 | 18 |
| 12 | 3 | SA | |
Rodrigo BAPTISTA | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 17 | 16.267 | 1:22.139 | 16 |
| 13 | 60 | SA | |
Juan Manuel CASELLA | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 17 | 18.023 | 1:22.263 | 14 |
| 14 | 8 | SA | |
Rafael SUZUKI | PMO Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 17 | 18.403 | 1:21.976 | 17 |
| 15 | 155 | WT |  |
MA Qing Hua | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 17 | 20.044 | 1:20.963 | 15 |
| 16 | 77 | SA | |
Raphael REIS | W2 Pro GP | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 17 | 20.233 | 1:22.458 | 19 |
| 17 | 34 | SA | |
Fabio CASAGRANDE | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 17 | 25.508 | 1:23.713 | 21 |
| 18 | 18 | SA | |
Carlos SILVA | Paladini Racing | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 17 | 26.752 | 1:23.598 | 22 |
| 19 | 37 | SA | |
Guilherme REISCHL | W2 Pro GP | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 17 | 39.544 | 1:25.149 | 23 |
| 20 | 15 | SA | |
Enrique MAGLIONE | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 17 | 43.351 | 1:23.112 | 25 |
| R | 28 | SA | |
Galid OSMAN | W2 Pro GP | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 9 | DNF | 1:22.458 | 20 |
| R | 47 | SA | |
Norberto FONTANA | Squadra Martino Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 9 | DNF | 1:22.634 | 13 |
| R | 7 | SA | |
Thiago VIVACQUA | Cobra Racing Team | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 1 | DNF | N/A | 24 |
| R | 127 | WT | |
John FILIPPI | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 0 | DNF | N/A | 8 |
| R | 199 | WT |  |
Marco BUTTI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 12 |