Hyundai’s Néstor Girolami clinched the victory in the second FIA TCR World Tour race in Valencia, the BRC Racing driver coming from fifth on the grid to win his first race of the season.
SP Compétition’s John Filippi had the reverse-grid pole, having finished tenth in Saturday’s opening race, and he and fellow front-row starter Felipe Fernández made good starts to lead the field for the first lap.
On the second lap, Girolami, who gained two places at the start, overtook Fernández for third through Turns 4 and 5, with Fernández having to go wide around the tyre stack on the exit of the corner, which also dropped him behind GOAT Racing team-mate Esteban Guerrieri.
It only took Girolami one more lap to catch and pass Filippi’s CUPRA in the middle sector, and thereafter the Argentine drive a measured race to win by just over a second.
Filippi held second for much of the race, but ALM Motorsport’s Ruben Volt, after a poor start which saw the Honda driver lose three places, was putting in a recovery drive and was up to fifth by the third lap.
Volt took fourth from Fernández on the fifth lap, as the latter went wide around the Turn 1 tyre stack again, and three laps later he passed fellow Honda racer Guerrieri for third.
Volt finally overtook Filippi for second with five laps to go, and at the same time Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher followed through into third.
The order remained unchanged thereafter, with Volt thus scoring a TCR World Tour podium on his maiden appearance in the championship.
Race one winner Ehrlacher kept Volt honest in the final laps, completing the podium half a second further back.
Filippi clinched fourth, the Frenchman’s second-best result in the series, with Guerrieri holding on for fifth.
GOAT Racing’s Ignacio Montenegro came through from the very back of the grid, one of the movers of the race. On the opening lap the young Argentine was up to 13th, but he made steady progress into the top ten. Then, on lap 11 he passed Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk for seventh, which opened the door for Mikel Azcona and Santiago Urrutia to also pass the Swede.
He finally got by Fernández late in the race to take sixth, ahead of Hyundai’s Azcona in seventh, Urrutia in eighth, Björk in ninth and Ma qing Hua completing the top ten.
Julien Briché was the only retirement of the race, pulling his JSB Compétition Hyundai into the pits after seven laps with a mechanical issue, whilst Monlau Motorsport’s Eric Gené failed to start the race.
Race three is scheduled to get underway at 15:30 CEST (14:30 BST).
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 129 |  |
Néstor GIROLAMI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 19 | 32:47.116 | 1:42.407 | 5 | |
| 2 | 27 |  |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 19 | 1.029 | 1:42.463 | 4 | |
| 3 | 168 |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 19 | 1.732 | 1:42.539 | 10 | |
| 4 | 127 | |
John FILIPPI | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 19 | 8.314 | 1:42.784 | 1 | |
| 5 | 186 | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 19 | 8.639 | 1:42.722 | 3 | |
| 6 | 123 | |
Ignacio MONTENEGRO | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 19 | 9.421 | 1:42.236 | 18 | |
| 7 | 196 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 19 | 10.020 | 1:42.513 | 16 | |
| 8 | 112 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 19 | 10.353 | 1:42.994 | 9 | |
| 9 | 111 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 19 | 12.512 | 1:42.655 | 6 | |
| 10 | 155 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 19 | 12.751 | 1:42.660 | 8 | |
| 11 | 105 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 19 | 14.088 | 1:42.439 | 7 | |
| 12 | 11 |  |
Marco BUTTI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 19 | 16.461 | 1:42.569 | 17 | |
| 13 | 19 | |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 19 | 18.430 | 1:42.766 | 2 | |
| 14 | 10 | |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 19 | 18.639 | 1:42.850 | 11 | |
| 15 | 45 | |
Raphaël FOURNIER | JSB Compétition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 19 | 20.396 | 1:43.037 | 13 | |
| 16 | 107 | |
Aurélien COMTE | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 19 | 55.094 | 1:41.666 | 14 | |
| R | 4 | |
Julien BRICHÉ | JSB Compétition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 7 | DNF | 1:42.316 | 12 | |
| NS | 28 | |
Eric GENÉ Casanovas | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | – | DNS | N/A | 15 |