ALM Motorsport’s Ruben Volt scored an emphatic win in the opening TCR Europe race of the weekend in Misano, triumphing as the sun went down ahead of Monlau Motorsport’s Jenson Brickley.
Volt made a strong start to lead the field away when the lights went out, whilst fellow front-row starter Jacopo Cimenes got too much wheelspin, and Brickley immediately jumped from third on the grid up to second.
Brickley then kept young Estonian Volt honest for the duration of the race, but the Brit couldn’t find a way to effectively challenge the leading Honda, and had to settle for second.
Volt won the race from Brickley’s CUPRA by less than a second, claiming his fifth win in the championship and his first since Spa-Francorchamps in 2024.
Cimenes completed the podium, although the wildcard Italian had to battle back past Santiago Concepción to claim the position after losing out to the Spaniard at the start. After a fierce battle on lap four, including some light contact, Cimenes took the place around the outside of Turn 1 on the next lap and held it to the conclusion of the race.
Concepción took fourth, although the RC2 Racing Team driver only did so after Monlau Motorsport’s Eric Gené stopped with a front-left puncture on the penultimate lap, after also passing Concepción earlier in the race a few corners after Cimenes.
Felipe Fernández was fifth, the Spaniard having run in sixth for most of the race before Gené’s demise, ahead of Solite Indigo Racing’s Junesung Park in sixth.
MA:GP’s Viktor Andersson lost three places on the opening lap and then spent the rest of the race following Park, taking the chequered flag in seventh, ahead of the leading Hyundai of Michele Imberti in eighth.
The top ten was completed by the second South Korean Solite Indigo Racing car of Junui Park and the leading Audi of Team Clairet’s Teddy Clairet.
Nicola Baldan would have taken tenth, but was given a five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits, dropping the Aikoa Racing driver to 13th. Likewise, Nicolas Taylor would have been eighth, but he too was penalised for track limits and fell to 12th.
It was not a strong race for the Clairet Audis, as erstwhile championship leader Jimmy Clairet dropped from 15th to last on the opening lap, before retiring in the pits.
Likewise, championship front-runner Marco Butti also had issues which required him to pit and the MM Motorsport driver was the only other retirement from the race.
The second race takes place at 12:40 CEST (11:40 BST) on Sunday.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 27 |  |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 16 | 27:47.300 | 1:43.006 | 1 | |
| 2 | 246 |  |
Jenson BRICKLEY | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 16 | 0.747 | 1:43.208 | 3 | |
| 3 | 82 |  |
Jacopo CIMENES | MM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 16 | 2.117 | 1:43.220 | 2 | |
| 4 | 33 |  |
Santiago CONCEPCIÓN | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 16 | 9.723 | 1:43.452 | 4 | |
| 5 | 19 | |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 16 | 13.313 | 1:43.702 | 9 | |
| 6 | 97 |  |
Junesung PARK | Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 15.466 | 1:43.952 | 6 | |
| 7 | 10 |  |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 16 | 15.776 | 1:43.917 | 5 | |
| 8 | 344 | |
Michele IMBERTI | Kombat Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 17.080 | 1:43.869 | 11 | |
| 9 | 87 | |
Junui PARK | Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 17.973 | 1:44.073 | 12 | |
| 10 | 20 |  |
Teddy CLAIRET | Team Clairet Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 16 | 18.412 | 1:44.086 | 10 | |
| 11 | 69 |  |
Max HART | Target Srl | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 20.490 | 1:44.375 | 14 | |
| 12 | 17 |  |
Nicolas TAYLOR | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 16 | 21.564 | 1:43.943 | 13 | |
| 13 | 8 | |
Nicola BALDAN | Aikoa Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 16 | 22.636 | 1:44.052 | 16 | |
| 14 | 72 | |
Sandro PELATTI | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 16 | 33.635 | 1:44.688 | 18 | |
| 15 | 80 | |
Filippo BARBERI | Aikoa Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 16 | 33.727 | 1:44.642 | 17 | |
| 16 | 13 |  |
Vedat Ali Dalokay | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 16 | 37.606 | 1:44.650 | 20 | |
| 17 | 45 | |
Victor FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | + 1 LAP | 1:44.925 | 19 | |
| 18 | 28 | |
Eric GENÉ Casanovas | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 14 | + 2 LAPS | 1:43.470 | 7 | |
| R | 111 | |
Marco BUTTI | MM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 8 | DNF | 1:43.002 | 8 | |
| R | 21 | |
Jimmy CLAIRET | Team Clairet Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 2 | DNF | 1:43.742 | 15 |