Cyan Racing’s Santiago Urrutia scored his second FIA TCR World Tour win of the weekend in Valencia, after an engine failure for ALM Motorsport’s Jenson Brickley saw him retire whilst leading.
Ahead of the race, changes to the grid meant Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher was given a 12-place grid penalty following an overnight engine change, dropping the Frenchman to 21st.
The reverse-grid race saw JSB Compétition’s Julien Briché start from pole position, with ALM’s Sten-Dorian Piirimägi alongside.
When the lights went out, Piirimägi made a better start to move ahead of the Hyundai by Turn 1, but Briché braked too late for the first corner and hit the rear of the Honda, sending Piirimägi wide and into a half-spin.
Briché was out of the race with front-end damage, the incident allowing Brickly, Aurélien Comte and the fast-starting Urrutia, from eighth on the grid, into the top three places.
On the second lap, Urrutia dived inside SP Compétition’s Comte for second into the chicane, and began to apply pressure to Brickley.
But the leading Honda shrugged off Urrutia’s challenges, and by the three-quarters distance was a comfortable second clear of the chasing Geely until disaster struck.
Going across the start-finish line on lap 18, Brickley’s car began smoking, and the Brit had to immediately pull off the circuit with some pouring from the back of his Civic.
Urrutia inherited the lead, which he converted into a second win in succession, with Comte second in his CUPRA.
Cyan Racing’s Ma Qing Hua had taken the chequered flag in third, but was given a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits at Turn 1, promoting BRC Racing’s Jenson Brickley into third, with Ma in fourth.
Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher had another disastrous race. Following his engine issues in race one, the Frenchman retired from race two as well, stopping in the pits after 14 laps, having got as high as tenth before trouble struck.
BRC Racing’s Mikel Azcona took fifth, ahead of race one podium finisher Thed Björk in sixth. ALM Motorsport’s Jimmy Clairet was seventh as the best Audi, ahead of Monlau Motorsport’s Viktor Andersson in eighth, who was once again the leading TCR Spain driver.
Enzo Gianfratti and Gabriele Covini completed the top ten in their CUPRA and Hyundai respectively.
After being knocked off at the first corner, Piirimägi could only manage 15th.
The race saw a brief safety car period at the end of lap three for two laps, after Manuel Fernandes was knocked into the gravel by Matheiu Casalonga, the former’s Audi needing to be recovered on a flatbed truck. Casalonga was handed a drive-through penalty for the incident.
Race three is scheduled to get underway at 16:40 CEST (15:40 BST).
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 181 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Geely Cyan Racing | Geely Preface TCR | 22 | 31:29.935 | 1:19.644 | 8 | |
| 2 | 107 |  |
Aurélien COMTE | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 22 | 1.346 | 1:20.055 | 5 | |
| 3 | 105 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N EV TCR | 22 | 2.970 | 1:20.188 | 6 | |
| 4 | 155 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Geely Cyan Racing | Geely Preface TCR | 22 | 6.807 | 1:19.878 | 4 | |
| 5 | 196 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N EV TCR | 22 | 8.146 | 1:20.193 | 7 | |
| 6 | 111 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Geely Cyan Racing | Geely Preface TCR | 22 | 9.515 | 1:20.218 | 9 | |
| 7 | 121 | |
Jimmy CLAIRET | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 22 | 10.740 | 1:20.331 | 11 | |
| 8 | 10 | |
Viktor ANDERSSON | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 22 | 12.564 | 1:20.299 | 10 | |
| 9 | 419 |  |
Enzo GIANFRATTI | DSOEM Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 22 | 15.435 | 1:20.573 | 12 | |
| 10 | 12 |  |
Gabriele COVINI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 22 | 23.402 | 1:20.884 | 18 | |
| 11 | 481 | |
Erik ZABALA | Vaque Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 22 | 27.002 | 1:21.097 | 13 | |
| 12 | 472 | |
Sandro PELATTI | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 22 | 29.090 | 1:20.507 | 15 | |
| 13 | 145 | |
Raphaël FOURNIER | JSB Compétition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 22 | 30.649 | 1:20.972 | 14 | |
| 14 | 441 |  |
René Junker POVLSEN | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 22 | 33.215 | 1:21.561 | 17 | |
| 15 | 437 |  |
Sten-Dorian PIIRIMÄGI | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 22 | 34.081 | 1:21.255 | 2 | |
| 16 | 81 | |
Damiano REDUZZI | Trico WRT | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 22 | 35.909 | 1:21.617 | 16 | |
| 17 | 411 | |
Busian FONTAN ALCALDE | RX Pro Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 22 | 37.240 | 1:21.388 | 25 | |
| 18 | 433 | |
Samuel CHALIGNE | Team Clairet Sport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 22 | 40.787 | 1:21.397 | 26 | |
| 19 | 405 |  |
Demir ERÖGE | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 22 | 43.603 | 1:21.580 | 24 | |
| 20 | 420 |  |
Sebastian QUIRNO | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 22 | 44.931 | 1:21.222 | 22 | |
| 21 | 431 | |
Mathieu CASALONGA | Team Clairet Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 22 | 1:22.094 | 1:21.763 | 23 | |
| R | 246 |  |
Jenson BRICKLEY | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 18 | DNF | 1:19.963 | 3 | |
| R | 15 | |
Luke SARGEANT | Vannin Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 16 | DNF | 1:21.399 | 20 | |
| R | 168 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Geely Cyan Racing | Geely Preface TCR | 14 | DNF | 1:20.544 | 21 | |
| R | 13 |  |
Manuel FERNANDES JR | Vannin Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 2 | DNF | 1:22.690 | 19 | |
| R | 24 | |
Julien BRICHÉ | JSB Compétition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 1 | DNF | N/A | 1 |