Hyundai dominated the opening race of the FIA TCR World Tour season in Misano, with Norbert Michelisz leading BRC Racing team-mate Mikel Azcona home in Saturday’s race.
Azcona had qualified his Elantra N on pole position earlier in the morning, and the Spaniard duly led away from the lights after making a very good start.
However, after two laps in the lead, Azcona seemingly allowed Michelisz past at the beginning of lap three and went on to follow his Hungarian colleague home for a 1-2 start to the season.
Reigning champion Yann Ehrlacher completed the podium in the brand new Geely Preface TCR, the Cyan Racing driver unable to challenge the leading duo for any further progress.
Santiago Urrutia and Thed Björk made it three Gellys in a row by finishing in fourth and fifth respectively, although the latter had his hands full in the closing laps of the race to keep the CUPRA of Aurélien Comte behind.
Comte had to save a huge slide on the penultimate lap when he made a late move on Björk for fifth, but the SP Compétition driver ultimately had to settle for sixth.
GOAT Racing’s Esteban Guerrieri was the leading Honda driver in seventh, despite having had to endure driveshaft issues in qualifying, ahead of the fourth Cyan Geely of Ma Qing Hua in eighth.
The top ten was completed by SP Compétition’s Jean-Karl Vernay and BRC Racing’s Gabriele Covini.
ALM Motorsport’s Ruben Volt had been running in ninth, but the Estonian, who had been the top guest driver for much of the weekend beforehand, had to pit with an issue on his Honda and finished a lap down.
His team-mate Jenson Brickley was also in strife on the opening lap of the race, being forced wide in a battle with Vernay before retiring to the pits at the end of the lap.
Race two is scheduled to get underway at 11:05 CEST (10:05 BST) on Sunday.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 105 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N EV TCR | 15 | 25:41.964 | 1:41.503 | 2 | |
| 2 | 196 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N EV TCR | 15 | 1.170 | 1:41.362 | 1 | |
| 3 | 168 |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Geely Cyan Racing | Geely Preface TCR | 15 | 1.704 | 1:41.621 | 3 | |
| 4 | 181 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Geely Cyan Racing | Geely Preface TCR | 15 | 2.138 | 1:41.490 | 4 | |
| 5 | 111 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Geely Cyan Racing | Geely Preface TCR | 15 | 5.244 | 1:41.547 | 5 | |
| 6 | 107 | |
Aurélien COMTE | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 15 | 5.708 | 1:41.788 | 7 | |
| 7 | 186 |  |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | 11.318 | 1:41.825 | 11 | |
| 8 | 155 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Geely Cyan Racing | Geely Preface TCR | 15 | 13.640 | 1:42.388 | 8 | |
| 9 | 169 | |
Jean-Karl VERNAY | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 15 | 14.058 | 1:42.289 | 12 | |
| 10 | 12 |  |
Gabriele COVINI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 20.661 | 1:42.718 | 9 | |
| 11 | 10 | |
Viktor ANDERSSON | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 15 | 22.085 | 1:43.079 | 14 | |
| 12 | 72 | |
Ramiro ZAGO | MM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | 29.072 | 1:43.250 | 15 | |
| 13 | 120 | |
Teddy CLAIRET | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | 30.899 | 1:43.001 | 13 | |
| 14 | 81 | |
Damiano REDUZZI | Trico WRT | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 42.727 | 1:44.095 | 16 | |
| 15 | 27 |  |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 14 | + 1 LAP | 1:41.771 | 6 | |
| 16 | 145 | |
Raphaël FOURNIER | JSB Compétition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 13 | + 2 LAPS | 1:42.827 | 17 | |
| 17 | 24 | |
Julien BRICHÉ | JSB Compétition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 13 | + 2 LAPS | 1:42.782 | 18 | |
| R | 246 |  |
Jenson BRICKLEY | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 1 | DNF | N/A | 10 |