Dušan Borković, driving a Target Competition Hyundai Elantra N, took a lights-to-flag victory in Race 1 at the Pau Ville street circuit after the Lynk & Co 03 of pole-sitter Viktor Andersson broke a driveshaft at the start. The win is the Serbian driver’s first in TCR Europe since his victory at the Hungaroring in July 2018 and comes after a disappointing first weekend to his 2023 season at Portimão two weeks ago.

Borković had qualified in second place on the grid and when the lights went out, he powered past the stricken MA:GP car to lead the field into Turn 1. Behind the Hyundai, the Comtoyou Racing Audi RS 3 LMS of Kobe Pauwels was in second place and Isaac Smith was third in a Volcano Motorsport Audi. After starting from tenth on the grid, Tom Coronel had made up three places to lie in seventh position ahead of Championship leader John Filippi while Pau legend Eric Cayrolle was in P4 after starting from sixth.

Andersson limped around the lap and headed into the pits, where he retired once the driveshaft failure had been diagnosed. The first half of the race was then processional, with Borković able to open up a lead of over a second over Pauwels by the end of Lap 6.

By Lap 9, the leaders had caught some backmarkers but there were no dramas as Borković picked his way past the CUPRA of Olivier Lopéz and the Audi of Christian Philippon. Pauwels seemed more cautious as he lapped the pair and so the lead grew to a little under three seconds.

The second half of the race then saw a number of battles start to emerge as drivers closed up on cars ahead of them. Among the scraps was Lewis Brown attacking Viktor Davidovski for P5, with Tom Coronel also closing to within striking distance of the pair. Eric Cayrolle was also catching Brown’s teammate Isaac Smith who was in third place.

On Lap 16, Brown was forced to run wide at Turn 2, which allowed both Coronel and Filippi to pass. Brown made slight contact with the barrier, but escaped unscathed and went on to finish in eighth place. Over the final couple of laps, Cayrolle then continued his assault on Smith, with the pair appearing to make contact at Turn 4 on Lap 18. Cayrolle dropped back slightly as a result and spent the remaining two laps defending P4 from Davidovski. Cayrolle crossed the line in fourth, but the Stewards later imposed a five-second penalty for a jump start and so he dropped behind Davidovski in the final classification.

But there was no denying Borković the victory after dominating the race from start to finish. His winning margin over Pauwels was just over three seconds, although Borković was quick to acknowledge the young Belgian driver was carrying forty kilos of Compensation Weight and paid tribute to the fact he’d kept up the pressure on Borković throughout the race. Isaac Smith finished third and so recorded his first TCR Europe podium finish while sixth place for Tom Coronel was enough to see the Dutch driver take over from John Filippi at the top of the Drivers’ Championship standings.

Race result

1. Dušan Borković (Target Competition, Hyundai Elantra N) 20 laps

2. Kobe Pauwels (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS)  +3.082

3. Isaac Smith (Volcano Motorsport, Audi RS 3 LMS) +5.872

4. Viktor Davidovski (Comtoyou, Audi RS 3 LMS)  +8.483

5. Eric Cayrolle (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS)  +12.252

TCR Europe Championship points

1. Tom Coronel 101pts; 2. John Filippi 98pts; 3. Kobe Pauwels 82pts; 4. Isaac Smith 79pts; 5. Dušan Borković 77pts

Race 2 is scheduled for 14.22 CEST on Sunday and will be streamed live on tcr-series.tv