Eric Gené has soared into the lead of the drivers’ championship after taking a lights-to-flag victory at the Red Bull Ring, in a race which saw a significant delay due to a red flag on lap one, following a five-car incident.

The Spanish driver led from pole into Turn 1 ahead of Nicolas Taylor’s Audi, with Marco Butti’s Honda close behind. Nicola Baldan clung on to fourth behind while a fast-starting René Kircher climbed to fifth in his ALM Honda, passing the rival Honda of Jacopo Cimenes’ into the first corner.

Kircher then tried to dive down the inside of Baldan’s Audi into Turn 3, making contact with the right-hand side of his car, while soon after the race came to a sudden halt after a multi-car pile-up exiting the corner.

The Honda of Cimenes and the CUPRA of Jenson Brickley came together after the exit with Santiago Concepción's Honda on the outside of the two drivers. Cimenes spun around and was collected by cars in the chasing pack, with Felipe Fernández, Junui Park, Filippo Barberi, and Sandro Pelatti all involved in the incident and taken out of the race on the spot.

With five cars scattered across the track, the race was red-flagged and a major clean-up operation took place.

When the race restarted after a 30-minute delay, Gené controlled the pace in the first phase, though he was briefly placed under pressure from Taylor, before the Canadian made an error at Turn 9 on lap nine and then put himself under pressure from Butti’s Honda.

Taylor managed to gather himself back up and hold on to claim his first podium in the series, while title contender Butti scored a key podium for his title challenge with third.

Baldan had an uneventful run to finish fourth, while Kircher crossed the line sixth, just behind Brickley, but due to a time penalty for his incident with Baldan at the initial start, dropped behind Jimmy Clairet, who had made a strong drive through the field, working his way up from tenth on the grid.

Gené was also the winner in the young drivers’ category, while Victor Fernández claimed his second Diamond class win of the season at the line, passing Giacomo Ghermandi’s Honda for 17th overall. In doing so, has secured the 2025 Diamond Best Trophy title, as he cannot be caught in the remaining three races.

Gené’s victory moves him 18 points clear of Teddy Clairet, who finished the race in 12th after starting 16th, while Jimmy Clairet’s just two points behind his brother and team-mate heading into tomorrow’s second race, where he’ll start from pole position on the reversed grid.

The race will start at 11:35 CEST tomorrow, with live streaming at youtube.com/@tcrtv and on DAZN.