Julien Briché has been handed a five-second time penalty for an outside of position start, dropping him to second in the final result of the opening TCR Europe race at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
That means Andreas Bäckman inherits a first ever win in the category for Target Competition, with Santiago Urrutia still third behind Briché despite a time penalty of his own.
It also boosts Josh Files’ championship lead up from 49 points to 54 heading into the final race in Spain tomorrow [22nd September].
Briché gained the lead after splitting the Hyundai’s on the run down to Turn 1 and passing Bäckman on the inside of the sweeping right-hander.
He then confidently managed the gap to Files behind – 1.3 seconds at the flag before the Brit’s 30-second penalty in lieu of a drive-through for an out of position start – as well as a safety car restart to mark up his then-fourth win of the campaign.
The Frenchman also starts ahead of his chief title rival Files for tomorrow’s reverse-grid contest at 12:30 CEST, giving him another opportunity to thin the advantage heading to the season finale at Monza next month.
Revised race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 19 | Andreas BÄCKMAN |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 25:57.154 | 1:56.207 | 1 |
| 2 | 24 | Julien BRICHÉ |  |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 11 | 3.105 | 1:55.901 | 3 |
| 3 | 55 | Santiago URRUTIA |  |
Team WRT | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 5.813 | 1:56.196 | 4 |
| 4 | 100 | Jack YOUNG |  |
Vuković Motorsport | Renault Mégane RS TCR | 11 | 6.507 | 1:56.761 | 8 |
| 5 | 12 | Nelson PANCIATICI | |
M Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 8.005 | 1:57.071 | 13 |
| 6 | 50 | Tom CORONEL |  |
Boutsen Ginion Racing | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 11 | 9.442 | 1:56.729 | 7 |
| 7 | 58 | Dominik BAUMANN |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 9.920 | 1:57.161 | 11 |
| 8 | 123 | Daniel LLOYD | |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 11 | 10.246 | 1:57.030 | 10 |
| 9 | 226 | Francisco MORA |  |
Veloso Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 11 | 12.271 | 1:57.365 | 17 |
| 10 | 45 | Gianni MORBIDELLI |  |
WestCoast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 11 | 12.641 | 1:57.030 | 19 |
| 11 | 23 | Tamás TENKE |  |
Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 11 | 16.820 | 1:56.658 | 23 |
| 12 | 25 | Natan BIHEL | |
M Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 18.514 | 1:57.098 | 20 |
| 13 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 18.778 | 1:56.914 | |
| 14 | 88 | Maxime POTTY |  |
Team WRT | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 11 | 19.668 | 1:57.083 | 15 |
| 15 | 67 | Zsolt Dávid SZABÓ | |
M1RA Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 19.735 | 1:57.261 | 34 |
| 16 | 26 | Jessica BÄCKMAN | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 20.921 | 1:57.521 | 16 |
| 17 | 204 | Robin VAKS |  |
ALM Honda Racing | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 11 | 27.377 | 1:58.696 | 26 |
| 18 | 17 | Martin RYBA | |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 11 | 27.894 | 1:58.944 | 28 |
| 19 | 7 | Aurélien COMTE | |
DG Sport Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 11 | 28.947 | 1:58.167 | 35 |
| 20 | 111 | Teddy CLAIRET | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 11 | 29.195 | 1:56.644 | 6 |
| 21 | 9 | Josh FILES | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 29.406 | 1:56.243 | 2 |
| 22 | 10 | Viktor DAVIDOVSKY |  |
PSS Racing Team | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 11 | 34.165 | 1:57.826 | 24 |
| 23 | 223 | Mattias VAHTEL | |
ALM Honda Racing | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 11 | 39.855 | 1:59.666 | 25 |
| 24 | 112 | Jimmy CLAIRET | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 11 | 40.177 | 1:57.345 | 5 |
| 25 | 224 | Gustavo MOURA | |
Team Novadriver | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 44.206 | 2:00.230 | 31 |
| 26 | 5 | Alex MORGAN | |
Wolf-Power Racing | CUPRA TCR | 11 | 46.347 | 1:57.797 | 14 |
| 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 |