MM Motorsport’s Marco Butti claimed his maiden victory in the TCR Europe series in the opening race at Spa-Francorchamps, coming from fifth on the grid to lead by the end of the opening lap.
Butti edged inside Ruben Volt at the start of the race to move into fourth, and as the field went down the Kemmel Straight the Italian tucked into the slipstream of the leading trio.
Butti then dived inside Solite Indigo Racing’s Junesung Park for third into Les Combes, which also became a dive for the lead as leader Santiago Concepción, who had passed RC2 Racing team-mate and pole-sitter Felipe Fernández on the same straight, left the door open.
Butti and Concepción made light contact in the corner, with the latter cutting the corner and retaining the lead. But further around the lap, Butti dived inside the leading Honda into the final chicane and took the lead.
The safety car had to be called on lap six when ALM Motorsport’s Volt went straight on into the gravel at Bruxelles corner. Butti then had to survive a second safety car intervention on lap nine when Jenson Brickley suffered a front-right puncture approaching Eau Rouge, resulting in a one-lap sprint to the finish.
Butti controlled the restart and won ahead of Junesung Park’s Hyundai by 1.6 seconds, the latter having taken second from Concepción exiting the final corner on the run to the finish line.
Concepción completed the podium in third, ahead of Monlau Motorsport’s Eric Gené in fourth as the best CUPRA driver.
The leading Audi was Teddy Clairet in fourth. Earlier in the race, on lap four, Jimmy Clairet had been the leading Audi but the erstwhile points leader went off into the gravel at Stevalot whilst battling with Park, dropping to 16th.
PMA Motorsport’s Nicolas Taylor came from 14th on the grid to take sixth at the chequered flag, ahead of Aikoa Racing’s Nicola Baldan in seventh, the Audi driver having relieved Fernández of the position on the final lap.
Despite claiming pole position on Friday, Fernández seemed to struggle for pace in the race and finished in eighth, with Solite Indigo Racing’s Junui Park and Aikoa Racing’s Filippo Barberi completing the top ten.
After his earlier off, Jimmy Clairet was only 12th at the end of the 25-minute plus one lap race.
Target Competition’s Max Hart took the chequered flag in ninth, but was handed a five-second track limits penalty, dropping the Irishman to 15th in the classification.
Race two is scheduled to get underway at 17:25 CEST (16:25 BST).
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 111 |  |
Marco BUTTI | MM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | 29:24.903 | 2:28.696 | 5 | |
| 2 | 97 |  |
Junesung PARK | Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | 1.643 | 2:29.675 | 4 | |
| 3 | 33 |  |
Santiago CONCEPCIÓN | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | 1.790 | 2:29.448 | 2 | |
| 4 | 28 | |
Eric GENÉ Casanovas | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 10 | 2.078 | 2:29.508 | 7 | |
| 5 | 20 |  |
Teddy CLAIRET | Team Clairet Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 10 | 2.542 | 2:29.313 | 8 | |
| 6 | 17 |  |
Nicolas TAYLOR | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 10 | 2.953 | 2:29.125 | 14 | |
| 7 | 8 | |
Nicola BALDAN | Aikoa Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 10 | 4.891 | 2:29.687 | 12 | |
| 8 | 19 | |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | 5.473 | 2:28.846 | 1 | |
| 9 | 87 | |
Junui PARK | Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | 6.176 | 2:29.947 | 11 | |
| 10 | 80 | |
Filippo BARBERI | Aikoa Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 10 | 6.683 | 2:29.059 | 17 | |
| 11 | 4 | |
Julien BRICHÉ | JSB Compétition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | 7.184 | 2:29.303 | 13 | |
| 12 | 21 | |
Jimmy CLAIRET | Team Clairet Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 10 | 7.624 | 2:29.736 | 6 | |
| 13 | 237 |  |
Sten-Dorian PIIRIMÄGI | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | 8.205 | 2:29.627 | 9 | |
| 14 | 10 |  |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 10 | 8.837 | 2:30.733 | 10 | |
| 15 | 69 |  |
Max HART | Target Srl | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | 10.746 | 2:29.999 | 15 | |
| 16 | 98 | |
Pierre-Arnaud NAVARRO | JSB Compétition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | 11.134 | 2:31.833 | 19 | |
| 17 | 79 | |
Sven KARUSE | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | 17.328 | 2:33.507 | 20 | |
| 18 | 45 | |
Victor FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | 1:05.386 | 2:31.473 | 18 | |
| R | 246 |  |
Jenson BRICKLEY | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 7 | DNF | 2:29.395 | 16 | |
| R | 27 | |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 4 | DNF | 2:29.012 | 3 | |
| R | 6 | |
Jean-Laurent NAVARRO | JSB Compétition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 1 | DNF | 3:02.495 | 21 | |
| NS | 44 | |
Felice JELMINI | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | – | DNS | N/A | – |