Julien Briché took victory in the opening TCR Europe contest at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, but remains under investigation for a suspected jump start.
His main title rival, Josh Files (Target Competition) finished second on the road, 1.3 seconds adrift, but a 30-second time penalty for an out of position start drops the Hyundai racer to 22nd in the final classification.
That cuts the gap in the championship standings between them to a mere 49 points, should Briche be allowed to keep the win.
Files’ team-mate Andreas Bäckman therefore inherited second after dropping back from pole position in the opening exchanges, with Santiago Urrutia’s Audi recovering from a sluggish start to round out the podium.
The front row made a level start with Briché cutting through from third to split the Hyundai i30 Ns and take the inside line through the sweeping right-hander at Turn 1.
Though Bäckman tried to stick it out around the outside, the back end of his car pitched into a half-spin; the Swede collected it in impressive fashion, but had to straightline the corner and re-joined side-by-side with Teddy Clairet’s Peugeot 308 through Turn 3.
Bäckman prevailed, making the early order Briché, Files, Bäckman and then a sluggish-starting Urrutia with a Clairet ahead and behind.
A lengthy safety car stoppage neutralised the race after a clash between Evgeni Leonov and Mattias Vahtel’s Honda pitched the former into Abdulla Ali Al-Khelfai, putting both out of the race on the spot.
That came in addition to Team Clairet Sport’s Gilles Colombani’s stalled Peugeot and the stranded JSB Competition machine of Marie Baus-Coppens.
Olli Kangas was the final casualty on a hectic opening lap, contact with Victor Davidovski’s Honda putting the WestCoast Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI off at Turn 8 and into retirement.
The race resumed with eleven minutes remaining, but the drama was far from over.
Briché maintained the status quo at the front, edging out a 0.4 second lead over Files.
Moments later, Gilles Magnus’ Audi RS 3 LMS went straight on at Turn 1, into the gravel and coming to rest against the tyre wall, nose-in, bringing out the yellow flags.
Drive-through penalties for both Clairet brothers for start procedure infringements promoted impressive debutante Jack Young (Vukovic Competition) into a net fifth, which became fourth with the announcement Files was to receive a 30-second time penalty in lieu of a drive-through for being out of his grid box at the start.
Briché was also announced minutes later as under investigation for a jump start, throwing the final result into question.
He made no mistake on track though, defending well to take the chequered flag and mark up a provisional fourth victory of the season.
Bäckman’s runner-up spot is his best finish of the season so far; Urrutia’s podium is his first since the opener at Spa-Francorchamps.
M Racing’s Nelson Panciatici rounds out the top five behind Young, with Boutsen Ginion Racing’s Tom Coronel moving forward one spot to sixth.
Dominik Baumann was seventh after surviving a hairy moment at Turn 10 that left Luca Engstler out of the race with front-left suspension damage.
Engstler was wide off-circuit and attempting to rejoin when Baumann and Clairet’s battle arrived on the scene; contact was made, and the German was left in the pit lane with a non-score.
Dan Lloyd takes eighth, with the returning Francisco Mora and Gianni Morbidelli in the surviving WestCoast VW rounding out the top ten.
The points scorers are rounded out by Alex Morgan, Tamas Tenke, Natan Bihel, Mat’o Homola and Maxime Potty.
The second and final race of the weekend in Barcelona gets underway at 12:30 CEST.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 24 | Julien BRICHÉ |  |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 11 | 25:55.259 | 1:55.901 | 3 |
| 2 | 19 | Andreas BÄCKMAN |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 1.895 | 1:56.207 | 1 |
| 3 | 55 | Santiago URRUTIA |  |
Team WRT | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 2.708 | 1:56.196 | 4 |
| 4 | 100 | Jack YOUNG |  |
Vuković Motorsport | Renault Mégane RS TCR | 11 | 8.402 | 1:56.761 | 8 |
| 5 | 12 | Nelson PANCIATICI | |
M Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 9.900 | 1:57.071 | 13 |
| 6 | 50 | Tom CORONEL |  |
Boutsen Ginion Racing | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 11 | 11.337 | 1:56.729 | 7 |
| 7 | 58 | Dominik BAUMANN |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 11.815 | 1:57.161 | 11 |
| 8 | 123 | Daniel LLOYD | |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 11 | 12.141 | 1:57.030 | 10 |
| 9 | 226 | Francisco MORA |  |
Veloso Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 11 | 14.166 | 1:57.365 | 17 |
| 10 | 45 | Gianni MORBIDELLI |  |
WestCoast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 11 | 14.536 | 1:57.030 | 19 |
| 11 | 5 | Alex MORGAN | |
Wolf-Power Racing | CUPRA TCR | 11 | 18.242 | 1:57.797 | 14 |
| 12 | 23 | Tamás TENKE |  |
Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 11 | 18.715 | 1:56.658 | 23 |
| 13 | 25 | Natan BIHEL | |
M Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 20.409 | 1:57.098 | 20 |
| 14 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 20.673 | 1:56.914 | |
| 15 | 88 | Maxime POTTY |  |
Team WRT | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 11 | 21.563 | 1:57.083 | 15 |
| 16 | 67 | Zsolt Dávid SZABÓ | |
M1RA Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 21.630 | 1:57.261 | 34 |
| 17 | 26 | Jessica BÄCKMAN | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 22.816 | 1:57.521 | 16 |
| 18 | 204 | Robin VAKS |  |
ALM Honda Racing | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 11 | 29.272 | 1:58.696 | 26 |
| 19 | 17 | Martin RYBA | |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 11 | 29.789 | 1:58.944 | 28 |
| 20 | 7 | Aurélien COMTE | |
DG Sport Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 11 | 30.842 | 1:58.167 | 35 |
| 21 | 111 | Teddy CLAIRET | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 11 | 31.090 | 1:56.644 | 6 |
| 22 | 9 | Josh FILES | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 31.301 | 1:56.243 | 2 |
| 23 | 10 | Viktor DAVIDOVSKY |  |
PSS Racing Team | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 11 | 36.060 | 1:57.826 | 24 |
| 24 | 223 | Mattias VAHTEL | |
ALM Honda Racing | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 11 | 41.750 | 1:59.666 | 25 |
| 25 | 112 | Jimmy CLAIRET | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 11 | 42.072 | 1:57.345 | 5 |
| 26 | 224 | Gustavo MOURA | |
Team Novadriver | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 46.101 | 2:00.230 | 31 |
| 27 | 27 | John FILIPPI | |
PCR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 10 | + 1 LAP | 1:56.765 | 21 |
| 28 | 30 | Luca FILIPPI | |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | + 1 LAP | 1:56.774 | 18 |
| R | 66 | Gilles COLOMBANI | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 7 | DNF | 1:58.785 | 30 |
| R | 8 | Luca ENGSTLER |  |
M1RA Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 6 | DNF | 1:57.327 | 12 |
| R | 16 | Gilles MAGNUS | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 4 | DNF | 2:13.123 | 9 |
| R | 21 | Marie BAUS-COPPENS | |
JSB Compétition | CUPRA TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 22 |
| R | 216 | Evgeni LEONOV |  |
Tecnicars Racing Team | CUPRA TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 27 |
| R | 96 | Abdulla Ali AL-KHELAIFI |  |
QMMF Racing by PCR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 32 |
| R | 46 | Olli KANGAS |  |
WestCoast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 33 |