Junui Park claimed his second win in a row in TCR Europe in an action-packed race, in which the Monlau Motorsport CUPRAs of Adam Shepherd and Marco Butti completed the podium as many of the championship contenders ran into difficulty.

Gabriele Covini started the race from pole position in his BRC Racing Team Hyundai after his record-setting performance earlier in the day in qualifying, and then made a good start, covering off Park’s Solite Indigo Racing Hyundai into the first turn.

Taylor held on to third, while the fast-starting Mikhail Simonov was already up to fourth by the end of the first lap ahead of Mike Halder’s ALM Motorsport Honda.

Further down the order, Covini’s team-mate Alex Ley and the Herrero Racing CUPRA of Victor Weyrich touched into Turn 1, with Weyrich developing a tyre rub which would eventually lead to a puncture.

The first puncture of the race though would hit Simonov’s SP CUPRA on lap four, just as he went into Curva Alboreto.

This promoted the second PMA Audi of Nicola Baldan to fourth, who was being chased down by the charging Hyundai of Julien Briché, who was flying after starting down in 13th.

On lap seven, race leader Covini’s front-left let go on the way into Ascari, handing the lead to Park, with Taylor still right on his tail.

Baldan was now third, but not for long as soon Baldan and Briché were both out with their own tyre issues, which promoted Halder to third, with the German being attacked by the CUPRA of Adam Shepherd.

With two laps to go, Halder locked up at Turn 1 and went down the escape road, promoting Shepherd and Butti to third and fourth. The hard battles meant they were over 12 seconds away from the leading pair, with Park under constant pressure from championship leader Taylor.

Moments later, it was Taylor’s turn, experiencing a front-left delamination, but due to the number of retirements he was still able to go on to finish in 14th position and pick up points in the championship.

Shepherd was promoted to a career-best result of second, with Butti’s third place moving the Italian to just one point away from Taylor in the drivers’ standings.

In a topsy-turvy top ten, Alex Ley recovered to finish fourth ahead of Ruben Volt’s Honda, with Viktor Andersson the third of the Monlau CUPRAs in sixth.

Raphael Fournier went from 17th to seventh in his JSB Compétition Hyundai, with Carl Boardley finishing in eighth place on his TCR Europe debut ahead of ALM team-mates Mikael Karlsson and René Povlsen, with Karlsson picking up his third Diamond Trophy victory.

The second race of the weekend takes place at 11:05 CEST tomorrow morning, with Butti starting from pole position ahead of Ley’s Hyundai.