Yann Ehrlacher led a Cyan Racing 1-2 in the opening FIA TCR World Tour race in Marrakech, which featured very little overtaking as the top four finished in the order they started.
The leading sextet of cars made a clean getaway when the lights went out, with no changes amongst the top half a dozen drivers.
Julien Piguet, however, made a slow getaway in his Audi and dropped to 12th, whilst Marco Butti also stalled his Honda and dropped to the back of the field.
The first major change of the order came when GOAT Racing’s Dušan Borković pitted from tenth on lap ten, the Serbian driver having picked up damage from Sami Taoufik in the early battling.
Moroccan Taoufik could continue, but was later hit with a five-second time penalty for the incident.
Four laps later, Piguet retired his Audi from 11th, and Butti came in to the pit a lap later with an issue on his Honda as well.
Another nine laps elapsed with little action, Victor Fernández, who was running in last anyway, also making a pit lane visit for an issue, before returning to the track.
The most exciting flurry of activity came over two laps from lap 24. Thed Björk, running in eighth after passing Cyan Racing team-mate Ma Qing Hua four laps earlier, made a late dive on Esteban Guerrieri’s Honda into the final corner.
The Lynk & Co made contact with Guerrieri’s Honda, and Björk muscled through. However, the stewards took a dim view on the dive and later gave the Swede a five-second penalty for the move.
A lap later, Ma repeated Björk’s move, again with contact, and briefly took eighth, before falling almost immediately to ninth again, as Sami Taoufik capitalised on the move to move past both drivers.
No further action was taken by the stewards for Ma’s move on Guerrieri, despite the similarities to Björks aggressive pass a lap prior.
The only other move in the race came four laps from the finish, as Hyundai’s Mikel Azcona caught the Volcano Motorsport Audi of John Filippi ahead, passing cleanly at the final corner to take fifth-place.
But at the front, Ehrlacher ran unchallenged to claim a first win of the season ahead of Uruguayan team-mate Urrutia, with BRC Racing’s reigning champion Norbert Michelisz completing the podium.
Néstor Girolami brought his Hyundai home in fourth, ahead of Azcona and Butti in fifth and sixth respectively.
Ma was seventh, after the penalties for both Björk and Taoufik, who had finished ahead on the road, were applied.
Björk was thus classified eighth, ahead of Guerrieri in ninth and Taoufik completing the top ten.
Home hero Mehdi Bennani made one place at the start when Butti stalled, but otherwise his only progress came with the retirements of the drivers ahead.
Race two takes place at 15:30 local time (15:30 BST, 16:30 CEST).
Race results
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
| 1 | 168 |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 36 | 30:56.804 | 51.087 | 1 | |
| 2 | 112 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 36 | 0.389 | 51.208 | 2 | |
| 3 | 105 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 36 | 1.086 | 51.180 | 3 | |
| 4 | 129 |  |
Néstor GIROLAMI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 36 | 2.903 | 51.223 | 4 | |
| 5 | 196 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 36 | 4.812 | 51.235 | 6 | |
| 6 | 127 | |
John FILIPPI | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 36 | 6.141 | 51.339 | 5 | |
| 7 | 155 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 36 | 10.979 | 51.366 | 9 | |
| 8 | 111 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 36 | 12.814 | 51.357 | 10 | |
| 9 | 186 | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 36 | 13.617 | 51.418 | 8 | |
| 10 | 212 |  |
Sami TAOUFIK | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 36 | 14.583 | 51.396 | 14 | |
| 11 | 125 | |
Mehdi BENNANI | Team Clairet Sport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 36 | 24.021 | 51.389 | 13 | |
| 12 | 41 | |
Victor FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 32 | + 4 LAPS | 51.497 | 15 | |
| R | 199 |  |
Marco BUTTI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 14 | DNF | 50.804 | 12 | |
| R | 30 | |
Julien PIGUET | Team Clairet Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 13 | DNF | 51.311 | 7 | |
| R | 62 |  |
Dušan BORKOVIĆ | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | DNF | 51.390 | 11 |