Brutal Fish Racing Team’s Dan Lloyd soaked up race-long pressure from Gilles Magnus’ Audi to claim victory in the second and final TCR Europe race of the weekend at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Lloyd made a perfect start from pole position and expertly managed the gap – and a safety car restart – to the Belgian behind to take the chequered flag half a second clear.
It marks a second victory for the Brit in consecutive meetings, having made his first trip to the winner’s circle last time out at Oschersleben.
Julien Briché cut his way through from eighth on the grid to complete the podium in the JSB Competition-run Peugeot 308 TCR, with Jack Young a commendable fourth once again on his debut weekend for Vukovic Motorsport.
Briché’s chief title rival Josh Files rounds out the top five from ninth in the leading Target Competition-run Hyundai i30 N TCR.
The result means the gap between the pair decreases to 48 points heading into the season finale at Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in three weeks’ time.
In truth, though Magnus was an ever-present in Lloyd’s mirrors, the two rarely looked likely to dispute the status quo at the front, minus one side-by-side moment through the sweeping right-hander at Turn 1.
The gap fluctuated between four and eight tenths of a second throughout; ultimately the RACB National Team member couldn’t force a mistake and had to settle for the runner-up spot.
After an early safety car stoppage for Gilles Colombani and Gustavo Moura’s stranded cars at Turn 9, the battle for the final spot on the rostrum began to heat up.
An optimistic move on the brakes from Santiago Urrutia’s Audi on Tom Coronel’s Boutsen Ginion Honda at Turn 10 left the former wide, and gave Briché’s Peugeot the opportunity to slip past both into fourth.
He then caught and passed Young on the inside of Turn 4 a few laps later to take a clean sweep of silverware in Catalonia.
Young kept pace with the Frenchman for the duration, but an opportunity to strike back in the Renault Megane never presented itself.
Both Coronel and Urrutia lost ground in the closing stages, the Dutchman taking the flag eighth behind Files, M Racing’s Nelson Panciatici and Teddy Clairet, whilst Urrutia was just 17th.
Dominik Baumann and race one winner Andreas Bäckman round out the top ten in Target-run Hyundai i30 Ns.
Luca Engstler’s M1RA Hyundai had also been in the running for a top-six finish, but he too dropped back and finished eleventh, all but ending his title hopes.
Alex Morgan, Gianni Morbidelli, Maxime Potty and Aurelien Comte round out the points finishers.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 123 | Daniel LLOYD |  |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 12 | 25:47.136 | 1:56.569 | 1 |
| 2 | 16 | Gilles MAGNUS |  |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 12 | 0.535 | 1:56.429 | 2 |
| 3 | 24 | Julien BRICHÉ |  |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 12 | 1.678 | 1:56.786 | 8 |
| 4 | 100 | Jack YOUNG | |
Vuković Motorsport | Renault Mégane RS TCR | 12 | 3.391 | 1:56.922 | 3 |
| 5 | 9 | Josh FILES | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 12 | 3.808 | 1:57.139 | 9 |
| 6 | 12 | Nelson PANCIATICI | |
M Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 12 | 10.301 | 1:57.054 | 13 |
| 7 | 111 | Teddy CLAIRET | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 12 | 10.766 | 1:57.502 | 5 |
| 8 | 50 | Tom CORONEL |  |
Boutsen Ginion Racing | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 12 | 12.670 | 1:57.811 | 4 |
| 9 | 58 | Dominik BAUMANN |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 12 | 13.101 | 1:57.746 | 11 |
| 10 | 19 | Andreas BÄCKMAN |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 12 | 13.291 | 1:57.215 | 10 |
| 11 | 8 | Luca ENGSTLER |  |
M1RA Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 12 | 20.450 | 1:57.425 | 12 |
| 12 | 5 | Alex MORGAN | |
Wolf-Power Racing | CUPRA TCR | 12 | 22.399 | 1:57.145 | 14 |
| 13 | 45 | Gianni MORBIDELLI |  |
WestCoast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 12 | 22.743 | 1:57.068 | 21 |
| 14 | 88 | Maxime POTTY | |
Team WRT | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 12 | 23.310 | 1:58.195 | 15 |
| 15 | 7 | Aurélien COMTE | |
DG Sport Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 12 | 23.588 | 1:57.549 | 18 |
| 16 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 12 | 24.923 | 1:57.185 | 22 |
| 17 | 55 | Santiago URRUTIA |  |
Team WRT | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 12 | 26.062 | 1:58.901 | 7 |
| 18 | 25 | Natan BIHEL | |
M Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 12 | 26.171 | 1:57.454 | 24 |
| 19 | 226 | Francisco MORA |  |
Veloso Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 12 | 26.279 | 1:57.327 | 17 |
| 20 | 23 | Tamás TENKE |  |
Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 12 | 26.735 | 1:57.575 | 27 |
| 21 | 46 | Olli KANGAS |  |
WestCoast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 12 | 27.929 | 1:58.181 | 23 |
| 22 | 17 | Martin RYBA | |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 12 | 33.337 | 1:58.180 | 31 |
| 23 | 204 | Robin VAKS |  |
ALM Honda Racing | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 12 | 35.736 | 1:58.215 | 29 |
| 24 | 216 | Evgeni LEONOV |  |
Tecnicars Racing Team | CUPRA TCR | 12 | 38.751 | 1:58.501 | 30 |
| 25 | 30 | Luca FILIPPI | |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 12 | 53.820 | 1:57.566 | 20 |
| 26 | 67 | Zsolt Dávid SZABÓ | |
M1RA Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | + 1 LAP | 1:57.187 | 19 |
| 27 | 26 | Jessica BÄCKMAN | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | + 1 LAP | 1:57.557 | 16 |
| 28 | 21 | Marie BAUS-COPPENS | |
JSB Compétition | CUPRA TCR | 11 | + 1 LAP | 1:58.701 | 26 |
| 29 | 112 | Jimmy CLAIRET | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 9 | + 3 LAPS | 1:57.844 | 6 |
| R | 10 | Viktor DAVIDOVSKY |  |
PSS Racing Team | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 8 | DNF | 1:57.859 | 28 |
| R | 223 | Mattias VAHTEL | |
ALM Honda Racing | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 7 | DNF | 1:59.130 | 32 |
| R | 27 | John FILIPPI | |
PCR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 2 | DNF | 2:24.965 | 25 |
| R | 66 | Gilles COLOMBANI | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 33 |
| R | 224 | Gustavo MOURA | |
Team Novadriver | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 34 |
| R | 96 | Abdulla Ali AL-KHELAIFI |  |
QMMF Racing by PCR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 35 |