Mehdi Bennani claimed his and the Hyundai Elantra’s first-ever victory in the TCR Europe series at the Slovakiaring, with the reigning champion holding off race one winner Mikel Azcona for victory.
Bennani started the reverse-grid race from pole and was never headed, despite late race pressure from the flying Spaniard.
At the start, Bennani assumed the lead as VRC-Team’s Klim Gavrilov moved into second at the first turn, whilst PSS Racing’s Franco Girolami jumped from fifth on the grid to third.
Girolami then got past the Audi of Gavrilov for second at the third corner, whilst further back Azcona had hauled his Volcano Motorsport CUPRA from ninth on the grid to fourth by the end of the first lap.
A short one-lap safety car period was then required as the Sébastien Loeb Racing Hyundai Elantra of Sami Taoufik failed to make it off the starting grid, being required to be pushed back to the pits.
When racing resumed on lap three, Azcona immediately pounced on Gavrilov into the first corner, moving into the podium positions.
The CUPRA driver then took two further laps to get past Argentine Girolami, again making his move at the end of the long start / finish straight.
Thereafter Azcona closed down Bennani’s near one-second lead, but was unable to deny the Moroccan victory despite sustained pressure in the second half of the race.
Remarkably, it is Bennani’s first-ever win in TCR Europe, despite him claiming last year’s championship with a run of consistency.
Azcona took second to leave Slovakia as the clear championship leader, whilst Girolami completed the podium in third as the leading Honda driver.
Gavrilov held on to finish in fourth, the Russian’s best result in the series, ahead of Zengő Motorsport’s Dániel Nagy in fifth.
Tom Coronel moved up from tenth on the grid to take sixth at the end, the Dutchman getting past young Spaniard Isidro Callejas for the position on lap eight.
Callejas was Brutal Fish Racing’s best-placed driver in seventh, whilst the second Comtoyou Racing Audi of Nicolas Baert was eighth.
Belgian Baert had been pressuring the Hyundai of Felice Jelmini in the second half of the race, benefitting when the Italian went wide on lap eight to claim the position, whilst Jelmini dropped out of the top ten.
Mat’o Homola had likewise benefitted and was running in eighth, but the Slovakian racer lost out to Baert on lap nine then dropped out of the top ten a lap later when Dušan Borković attempted to pass.
In the action, Borković too lost out and Jimmy Clairet was able to pass two cars in one move, moving the Peugeot driver up to ninth, whilst Borković completed the top ten.
Brutal Fish Racing’s Jack Young got past Homola with two laps to go to claim 11th, whilst Homola had to settle for 12th on home soil, just ahead of Jelmini in 13th.
Niels Langeveld was the only driver to retire from the race, the SLR driver having taken to the grass on lap six whilst trying to pass Borković and filling his car’s radiator with grass, which later overheated.
Azcona leaves Slovakia leading the points with 84 to his name, ahead of Bennani (62 points), Nagy (60), Baert (58), Coronel (55) and Girolami (42).
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
| 1 | 250 |  |
Mehdi BENNANI | Sébastien Loeb Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 25:29.730 | 2:12.346 | 1 | |
| 2 | 96 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 11 | 0.501 | 2:12.113 | 9 | |
| 3 | 72 |  |
Franco GIROLAMI | PSS Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 11 | 2.961 | 2:12.641 | 5 | |
| 4 | 14 |  |
Klim GAVRILOV | VRC-Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 3.858 | 2:12.669 | 4 | |
| 5 | 99 |  |
Dániel NAGY | Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 11 | 4.698 | 2:12.634 | 6 | |
| 6 | 32 |  |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 5.279 | 2:12.588 | 10 | |
| 7 | 26 | |
Isidro CALLEJAS | Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 11 | 7.530 | 2:12.762 | 3 | |
| 8 | 8 |  |
Nicolas BAERT | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 17.347 | 2:14.168 | 8 | |
| 9 | 21 |  |
Jimmy CLAIRET | Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 11 | 20.272 | 2:13.655 | 15 | |
| 10 | 162 |  |
Dušan BORKOVIĆ | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 22.252 | 2:14.047 | 7 | |
| 11 | 62 |  |
Jack YOUNG | Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 11 | 22.446 | 2:13.695 | 18 | |
| 12 | 70 |  |
Mat’o HOMOLA | Janík Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 23.807 | 2:13.870 | 12 | |
| 13 | 44 |  |
Felice JELMINI | Sébastien Loeb Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 24.230 | 2:14.117 | 2 | |
| 14 | 20 | |
Teddy CLAIRET | Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 11 | 24.970 | 2:14.014 | 22 | |
| 15 | 17 | |
Martin RYBA | Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 11 | 25.525 | 2:14.077 | 16 | |
| 16 | 24 | |
Jáchym GALÁŠ | Janík Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 25.771 | 2:13.898 | 14 | |
| 17 | 16 | |
Evgenii LEONOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 11 | 26.012 | 2:14.705 | 11 | |
| 18 | 110 |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKY | PSS Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 11 | 27.732 | 2:13.972 | 17 | |
| 19 | 77 | |
Sylvain PUSSIER | Team Clairet Sport | CUPRA TCR | 11 | 29.941 | 2:14.996 | 20 | |
| 20 | 66 | |
Gilles COLOMBANI | Team Clairet Sport | CUPRA TCR | 11 | 30.940 | 2:14.545 | 21 | |
| 21 | 10 | |
Niels LANGEVELD | Sébastien Loeb Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | + 3 LAPS | 2:13.468 | 13 | |
| NS | 25 | |
Sami TAOUFIK | Sébastien Loeb Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | – | DNS | N/A | 19 |