Alex Ley took his second win of the season, his first since the season opener at Mugello and launched himself back into title contention, while Marco Butti will go to Barcelona for the second year in a row as the championship leader.

Marco Butti began the race from pole position and managed to hold on to the lead for the first lap, but after struggling around the circuit with 40kg of ballast, the Italian was picked off by Ley’s BRC Racing Team Hyundai at the start of lap two.

On lap three, Mikhail Simonov then managed to pass Butti into the first corner, with Nicola Baldan’s Audi following him through into third position, before Baldan was then able to slipstream past Simonov’s CUPRA a lap later.

The race was then held behind the safety car when championship protagonist Viktor Andersson’s CUPRA stopped with a technical issue just after Ascari.

The race resumed on lap nine, but was soon over again after a double-hit for former teams’ championship leaders PMA Motorsport, with Sandro Pelatti stopping on circuit, shortly followed by points leader Nicolas Taylor, whose Audi’s front bodywork had been knocked loose.

The race resumed with just one lap to go, and Ley continued to lead the way ahead of Baldan to claim victory, though only just, as straight after he crossed the line his front-left tyre failed and he recovered to parc fermé with a blown tyre.

Baldan was also under pressure from behind from Simonov’s SP Compétition CUPRA right to the line.

Marco Butti crossed the line a safe fourth and took over the lead of the drivers’ championship by 11 points, with Ley now moving up to second, eight points ahead of Taylor.

Julien Briché finished a strong fifth, coming through from 13th on the grid, ahead of yesterday’s race winner Junui Park, with Mike Halder the best-placed of the ALM Motorsport Hondas in seventh.

René Povlsen was the Diamond Trophy winner, finishing in the points in 15th overall, while Giacomo Prandelli picked up his first Tenerife Trophy class victory of the season, and goes to Barcelona in prime position to win the category. As the overall winner, Alex Ley was also the Youth Best winner.

In terms of the championship, nine drivers go to Barcelona in contention for the overall drivers’ title, Marco Butti, Alex Ley, Nicolas Taylor, Viktor Andersson, Nicola Baldan, Mike Halder, Tiago Pernía, Ruben Volt, and Junui Park.

The season finale takes place at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on 23-25 October.