Mike Halder won his second race of the season in the TCR Europe championship at an overcast and gloomy Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain.
The Profi Car Team Halder driver made a better start than pole sitter Mat’o Homola and dived up the inside of the Hyundai driver at the first corner and would go on to dominate the rest of the race, finishing 4.984 seconds ahead of Pepe Oriola.
Oriola had got the better of Homola midway through the opening lap, but a charge late on by Sami Taoufik meant the Spaniard had to work extremely hard to keep hold of his second place.
Taoufik had moved first ahead of team-mate Mehdi Bennani on lap five before getting past Homola two laps later.
Oriola and Taoufik’s battle even resulted in the two colliding on the penultimate lap at the first corner after the ComToYou Racing man attempted a move around the outside, but both continued to battle until the very end including at the chicane on the final lap.
Halder’s victory also have significance in the championship fight, as series leader Dan Lloyd’s poor weekend continued.
The Brit ended the race down in 16th and had been no higher than tenth throughout the entire race before going off the road at turn five on the final lap.
The non-score for Lloyd means he now has just a two point lead over Halder heading into Sunday’s second race.
Pole sitter Homola meanwhile had to settle for fourth in the opening race of the weekend after managing to hold off Bennani who finished close behind in fifth.
The second BRC Hyundai of Dániel Nagy took sixth ahead of Andreas Bäckman, with the Swede making solid progress from his tenth place on the grid.
His sister Jessica, meanwhile, had a race-long battle with series returnee and teammate José Manuel Sapag.
The two Target Competition drivers collided at Turn 10 on the second lap, dropping both down the order, with Sapag eventually recovering to 12th with Backman in 15th at the end of the race.
The top ten was completed by John Filippi, Julien Briché, and championship contender Nicolas Baert in the third of the ComToYou Racing Audi’s.
Race two is scheduled to get underway at 13:55 CEST (12:55 BST) on Sunday.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 7 | Mike HALDER |  |
Profi Car Team Halder | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 12 | 12 LAPS | 1:57.106 | 2 |
| 2 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA |  |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 12 | 4.984 | 1:57.738 | 4 |
| 3 | 25 | Sami TAOUFIK |  |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 12 | 5.206 | 1:56.893 | 6 |
| 4 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA |  |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 12 | 12.244 | 1:57.724 | 1 |
| 5 | 250 | Mehdi BENNANI | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 12 | 12.593 | 1:57.751 | 5 |
| 6 | 99 | Dániel NAGY |  |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 12 | 12.883 | 1:57.630 | 3 |
| 7 | 19 | Andreas BÄCKMAN |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 12 | 13.884 | 1:57.744 | 10 |
| 8 | 27 | John FILIPPI |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 12 | 13.987 | 1:57.693 | 8 |
| 9 | 24 | Julien BRICHÉ | |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 12 | 17.108 | 1:57.669 | 13 |
| 10 | 8 | Nicolas BAERT |  |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 12 | 19.613 | 1:57.811 | 7 |
| 11 | 21 | Jimmy CLAIRET | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 12 | 24.082 | 1:58.460 | 16 |
| 12 | 33 | José Manuel SAPAG |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 12 | 24.767 | 1:57.845 | 17 |
| 13 | 16 | Evgenii LEONOV |  |
Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 12 | 25.750 | 1:57.438 | 11 |
| 14 | 81 | Stéphane VENTAJA | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 12 | 26.019 | 1:58.088 | 18 |
| 15 | 26 | Jessica BÄCKMAN | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 12 | 26.288 | 1:57.425 | 9 |
| 16 | 123 | Daniel LLOYD |  |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 12 | 30.385 | 1:58.013 | 12 |
| 17 | 6 | Jean Laurent NAVARRO | |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 12 | 34.967 | 1:59.506 | 21 |
| 18 | 66 | Gilles COLOMBANI | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 12 | 37.088 | 1:59.511 | 20 |
| 19 | 20 | Teddy CLAIRET | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 12 | 40.872 | 1:57.606 | 22 |
| 20 | 4 | Florian BRICHÉ | |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 12 | 1:02.690 | 1:58.568 | 19 |
| 21 | 53 | Michelle HALDER | |
Profi Car Team Halder | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 10 | + 2 LAPS | 1:58.238 | 15 |
| R | 17 | Martin RYBA | |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 5 | DNF | 1:58.693 | 14 |
