Yann Ehrlacher won the opening FIA TCR World Tour race of the season in Mexico after a fierce battle with Cyan Racing Lynk & Co team-mate Santiago Urrutia throughout the race.
At the start, pole-sitter Esteban Guerrieri made a terrible getaway from the lights in his GOAT racing Honda, allowing the fast-starting Urrutia, from fifth on the grid, to leap into the lead, as even front-row start Ehrlacher was less than rapid away from the lights.
Also slow to get going was the other GOAT Racing Honda of Ignacio Montenegro and SP Compétition’s john Filippi, both World Tour entries slipping back out of the top ten.
Whilst Guerrieri fell to 11th on the opening lap, Montenegro dropped out of the race entirely when his right-rear wheel came off exiting the final corner, sending his Civic spinning across the circuit and miraculously avoiding being hit.
At the front, Ehrlacher dived past Urrutia for the lead on the second lap, but the Frenchman’s lead would only last three laps before his Uruguayan team-mate dived inside into the first corner to retake the lead.
Undeterred, Ehrlacher kept maximum pressure applied to Urrutia, who got out of shape on the eighth lap and allowed Ehrlacher a run on him heading into the stadium section, resulting in Ehrlacher cutting the corner in avoidance of the tyre stack.
Although Ehrlacher seized the lead in the process, two corners later Urrutia dived back inside at Turn 1.
The safety car was then called due to an errant tyre stack, but when racing resumed one lap later, Ehrlacher kept applying maximum pressure to Urrutia, and eventually went around the outside at Turn 1 to hand himself the inside line for Turn 2 on lap 13, seizing the lead.
That pass baulked Urrutia, who then quickly lost third to team-mate Thed Björk, who had only just passed SP Compétition’s Aurélien Comte for third.
Things settled down thereafter, with Ehrlacher claiming the opening win of the season in a Cyan Racing 1-2-3 ahead of Björk and Urrutia.
Guerrieri recovered to take fourth, passing Comte on lap 16, with Ma coming home in sixth behind Comte.
Julio Rejón was the top local racer in seventh, although Michel Jourdain, who eventually finished in eighth, had run in fourth early on due to the slow starts of the TCR World Tour regulars.
Rodrigo Rejón brought his CUPRA home in ninth, whilst Mikel Azcona was the leading BRC Hyundai driver in tenth, the team continuing to struggle with its Elantra N TCR cars at the Mexican circuit, as Néstor Girolami was only 11th and Norbert Michelisz just 18th.
However, tenth for Azcona will give him pole position for the reverse-grid second race on Saturday.
Race two takes place at 11:30 local time (18:30 BST, 19:30 CEST) on Saturday, followed by race three at 17:20 local time (00:20 BST, 01:20 CEST).
Race results
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 168 | WT |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 20 | 33:07.349 | 1:35.355 | 2 |
| 2 | 111 | WT |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 20 | 3.581 | 1:35.386 | 3 |
| 3 | 112 | WT |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 20 | 5.544 | 1:35.597 | 5 |
| 4 | 186 | WT |  |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 20 | 10.200 | 1:35.427 | 1 |
| 5 | 107 | WT | |
Aurélien COMTE | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 20 | 12.155 | 1:35.770 | 6 |
| 6 | 155 | WT |  |
MA Qing Hua | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 20 | 12.686 | 1:36.067 | 7 |
| 7 | 1 | WT |  |
Julio REJÓN | ProRally Mothers | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 20 | 13.938 | 1:36.092 | 8 |
| 8 | 18 | WT | |
Michael JOURDAIN | Peralta Racing Team | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 20 | 21.134 | 1:36.673 | 11 |
| 9 | 55 | WT | |
Rodrigo REJÓN | ProRally Mothers | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 20 | 26.717 | 1:36.644 | 10 |
| 10 | 196 | WT |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 20 | 27.167 | 1:37.302 | 14 |
| 11 | 129 | WT | |
Néstor GIROLAMI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 20 | 28.468 | 1:37.024 | 13 |
| 12 | 127 | WT | |
John FILIPPI | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 20 | 29.640 | 1:37.384 | 9 |
| 13 | 34 | MX | |
Carlo ZESATI | Zesati Racing VP Garage 34 | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 20 | 40.436 | 1:37.651 | 18 |
| 14 | 88 | MX | |
Juan Pablo SIERRA | Centur Silen Petrol Racing | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 20 | 49.005 | 1:37.023 | 15 |
| 15 | 45 | MX | |
Franco ZANELLA | Z Racing Team | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 20 | 53.732 | 1:38.604 | 19 |
| 16 | 2 | MX | |
Santiago CREEL | RE Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 20 | 55.397 | 1:37.894 | 17 |
| 17 | 44 | MX | |
César Tiberio JIMÉNEZ | Orangino Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 20 | 1:02.443 | 1:39.915 | 22 |
| 18 | 105 | WT |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 20 | 1:20.052 | 1:37.151 | 12 |
| 19 | 33 | MX | |
Todd SLOAN | Orea Ross Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 20 | 1:25.749 | 1:39.985 | 21 |
| 20 | 12 | MX | |
Horia-Traian CHIRIGUT | RE Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 19 | + 1 LAP | 1:38.780 | 16 |
| 21 | 43 | MX | |
Humberto ZESATI | Zesati Racing VP Garage 34 | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 19 | + 1 LAP | 1:40.139 | 23 |
| 22 | 7 | MX | |
Ignacio SÁNCHEZ | M&M Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 19 | + 1 LAP | 1:42.557 | 24 |
| 23 | 35 | MX | |
Mario DOMÍNGUEZ | Apycsa Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 16 | + 4 LAPS | 1:38.647 | 20 |
| R | 123 | WT | |
Ignacio MONTENEGRO | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 4 |