Pepe Oriola narrowly held off a charge from Julien Briché to claim victory in the second TCR Europe race at Monza, with the Peugeot driver having charged through the pack in a tight race.
At the start, reverse-grid pole-sitter John Filippi initially lost out to the fast-starting Honda of Mike Halder, who led into the first chicane.
Whilst Filippi then slipped down the order over the opening lap, which the Target Competition driver ended in fourth, Oriola had surged forwards from sixth on the grid to take the lead by the end of the first lap with a move on Halder exiting the Parabolica.
Halder then rapidly dropped down the order, before the German pitted at the end of lap three with an issue on his Honda.
Oriola initially opened up a 1.4 second lead over the first few laps, as the Audi of Comtoyou Racing’s Nicolas Baert occupied second, the Belgian having also passed Filippi at the Parablocia on the opening tour.
Briché initially lost out to rival Dan Lloyd on the first lap, but the Frenchman soon regained the position and was in seventh at the end of lap one.
Briché was a man on a mission thereafter, picking off Mehdi Bennani and Halder on lap two, followed by Mat’o Homola on lap three to assume third place.
One lap later Briché passed Baert for second at the final turn, and set about closing down Oriola’s lead.
In the end the 39-year-old simply didn’t have enough to pass Oriola, who defend heavily in the final few laps to win by just 0.152 seconds.
Homola claimed third, after passing Baert on lap six at the first chicane, whilst Jimmy Clairet made up for his Saturday disappointment by taking fourth from Baert on the last lap.
Baert came home in fifth, ahead of the second Clairet Sport Peugeot of Teddy Clairet in sixth.
PMA Motorsport’s Felice Jelmini was seventh, again putting in a strong performance on his TCR Europe début, despite contact from Filippi early on in the race.
Filippi claimed eighth, after contact with Bennani two laps from the end promoted the Hyundai driver.
Bennani was ninth, whilst Brutal Fish Racing’s Martin Ryba completed the top ten.
It was a bittersweet race for the Slovakian Brutal Fish team, after championship leader Dan Lloyd retired after three laps due to a front-right puncture on his Honda, although the Brit still holds a 32-point advantage over nearest rival Baert.
The next TCR Europe event takes place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain in two weeks’ time.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA |  |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 10 | 19:58.198 | 1:58.563 | 6 |
| 2 | 24 | Julien BRICHÉ |  |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 10 | 0.152 | 1:58.263 | 7 |
| 3 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA |  |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 4.546 | 1:58.903 | 5 |
| 4 | 21 | Jimmy CLAIRET | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 10 | 5.208 | 1:58.488 | 8 |
| 5 | 8 | Nicolas BAERT |  |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 6.147 | 1:58.967 | 3 |
| 6 | 20 | Teddy CLAIRET | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 10 | 6.398 | 1:59.211 | 4 |
| 7 | 44 | Felice JELMINI |  |
PMA Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 6.684 | 1:59.004 | 12 |
| 8 | 27 | John FILIPPI | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 6.798 | 1:58.853 | 1 |
| 9 | 250 | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 9.581 | 1:58.611 | 10 |
| 10 | 17 | Martin RYBA | |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 10 | 12.169 | 1:59.125 | 17 |
| 11 | 53 | Michelle HALDER |  |
Profi Car Team Halder | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 10 | 12.413 | 1:59.433 | 14 |
| 12 | 25 | Sami TAOUFIK | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 12.858 | 1:59.669 | 22 |
| 13 | 99 | Dániel NAGY |  |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 13.128 | 1:59.736 | 11 |
| 14 | 26 | Jessica BÄCKMAN |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 14.346 | 1:59.368 | 13 |
| 15 | 16 | Evgenii LEONOV |  |
Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 10 | 18.557 | 1:59.839 | 15 |
| 16 | 6 | Jean Laurent NAVARRO | |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 10 | 28.057 | 2:00.869 | 23 |
| 17 | 81 | Stéphane VENTAJA | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 10 | 30.441 | 1:59.638 | 18 |
| 18 | 64 | Luca RANGONI | |
Tecnodom Sport | Fiat Tipo TCR | 10 | 31.156 | 2:00.720 | 20 |
| 19 | 15 | Kevin GIACON | |
Tecnodom Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 37.215 | 2:01.357 | 21 |
| 20 | 10 | Viktor DAVIDOVSKI |  |
PSS Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 9 | + 1 LAP | 1:59.149 | 16 |
| R | 66 | Gilles COLOMBANI | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 5 | DNF | 2:00.950 | 19 |
| R | 123 | Daniel LLOYD |  |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 3 | DNF | 1:59.839 | 9 |
| R | 7 | Mike HALDER | |
Profi Car Team Halder | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 3 | DNF | 2:01.009 | 2 |
| NS | 19 | Andreas BÄCKMAN | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | – | DNS | N/A | – |
