Cyan Racing’s Santiago Urrutia won the reverse-grid second TCR World Tour / TCR Europe race at the Algarve Circuit in Portugal, with the Lynk & Co driver enjoying a lights-to-flag victory.
Urrutia made a strong start to assume the lead away from the line, as fellow front-row starter Kobe Pauwels dropped behind Urrutia’s team-mate Thed Björk before the first corner.
With Björk defending second on the inside, the fast-start Comtoyou Racing Audi of Tom Coronel then attempted to go around the outside at Turn 2, but the Swede prevailed.
At the next corner, Pauwels then lost out to Frédéric Vervisch’s Audi, and ALM Motorsport’s Néstor Girolami tried to pass him for fifth at the inside of Turn 4.
Girolami ended up making contact with Pauwels, however, pushing the Audi out wide, and as the young Belgian returned to the track he collected the Hyundai of Dušan Borković.
Pauwels was out of the race on the spot, requiring a safety car intervention, whilst Borković limped back to the pits with heavy front-right damage.
Girolami also pitted for repairs, but re-joined the circuit on the lead lap. The safety car came in and racing resumed on lap six, only to be required a lap later as Girolami’s front-right suspension had given up before he even got to the start line to resume the race.
A second restart occurred on lap nine and Urrutia was able to open up enough of a margin over Björk to control the final six laps of the race, taking the first victory for a Lynk & Co car in a TCR Europe race.
Björk was second, just under half a second behind, whilst Vervisch completed the podium, having got by the leading TCR Europe competitor of Coronel on lap 11.
BRC Racing’s Mikel Azcona had followed Vervisch past Coronel on the same lap and took fourth, with Coronel having to settle for fifth.
Comtoyou Racing’s Rob Huff took sixth, ahead of Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher in seventh.
BRC Racing’s Norbert Michelisz got past Ma Qing Hua for eighth on the penultimate lap, with the Comtoyou Audi of John Filippi also able to get past the Cyan Racing driver on the last lap.
Ma thus completed the top ten, ahead of Rubén Fernández in 11th, the Spaniard completing the TCR Europe podium.
His brother, Felipe Fernández, had actually finished just behind him but was given a post-race ten-second penalty for contact with Viktor Davidovski, an incident which meant the Macedonian driver finished last on the road in 19th.
Race results
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
| 1 | 112 | WT |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 14 | 31:35.873 | 1:52.672 | 1 |
| 2 | 111 | WT |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 14 | 0.461 | 1:52.742 | 3 |
| 3 | 122 | WT |  |
Frédéric VERVISCH | Audi Sport Team Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 14 | 1.046 | 1:52.552 | 7 |
| 4 | 196 | WT |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 14 | 1.435 | 1:52.509 | 9 |
| 5 | 34 | EU |  |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 14 | 4.045 | 1:53.137 | 4 |
| 6 | 179 | WT |  |
Rob HUFF | Audi Sport Team Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 14 | 4.333 | 1:52.961 | 8 |
| 7 | 168 | WT |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 14 | 4.567 | 1:52.691 | 11 |
| 8 | 105 | WT |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 14 | 5.612 | 1:52.828 | 10 |
| 9 | 27 | EU | |
John FILIPPI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 14 | 7.441 | 1:53.225 | 12 |
| 10 | 155 | WT |  |
MA Qing Hua | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 14 | 11.564 | 1:52.815 | 5 |
| 11 | 12 | EU | |
Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil | RC2 Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 14 | 13.321 | 1:54.138 | 20 |
| 12 | 71 | EU |  |
Ben BARGWANNA | Team Clairet Sport – Burson Auto Parts Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 14 | 15.269 | 1:54.158 | 19 |
| 13 | 23 | EU | |
Isaac SMITH | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 14 | 15.939 | 1:53.949 | 18 |
| 14 | 10 | EU | |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 14 | 16.372 | 1:53.875 | 15 |
| 15 | 8 | EU |  |
Nicola BALDAN | Aggressive Team Italia | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 14 | 17.032 | 1:54.125 | 21 |
| 16 | 39 | EU | |
Lewis BROWN | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 14 | 17.809 | 1:54.318 | 17 |
| 17 | 48 | EU | |
Mikael KARLSSON | Aggressive Team Italia | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 14 | 19.155 | 1:54.418 | 22 |
| 18 | 19 | EU | |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | RC2 Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 14 | 23.949 | 1:53.392 | 16 |
| 19 | 11 | EU |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 14 | 31.934 | 1:53.407 | 13 |
| R | 129 | WT |  |
Néstor GIROLAMI | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 4 | DNF | 1:57.552 | 6 |
| R | 62 | EU |  |
Dušan BORKOVIĆ | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 1 | DNF | 3:08.331 | 14 |
| R | 22 | EU | |
Kobe PAUWELS | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 0 | DNF | N/A | 2 |