Nicolas Taylor has taken his first win in the TCR Europe series at Mugello, leading from lights-to-flag in his PMA Motorsport Audi in an action-packed race. Yesterday’s race winner, Alex Ley, came through to finish in second place.

Taylor’s Audi lined up on pole position thanks to the partially reversed grid and he led the way into Turn 1, where he was briefly joined by team-mate Nicola Baldan, who made a fast start from fourth on the grid.

Baldan, however, went in too deep and slid wide, dropping to eighth place. This allowed Junesung Park’s Solite Indigo Racing Hyundai up to second place, ahead of Marco Butti’s CUPRA in third.

Butti’s Monlau Motorsport team-mate, Viktor Andersson, had slipped to fifth and was then passed by Ley’s Hyundai on the second lap, with the BRC Racing Team driver already making ground after starting tenth.

Park and Butti battled for second place, with the Italian applying pressure to the South Korean racer, while Ley soon joined them after he overtook Mike Halder’s ALM Motorsport Honda for fourth at the start of lap six.

A lap later, both Butti and Ley overtook Park. Butti made light contact with the rear of Park’s car at the apex, which saw the latter fall behind.

A vulnerable Park was then passed by Halder in an incredible dogfight which lasted all the way from the final corner at the end of the lap right up to Turn 2.

An incident involving Victor Fernández and Julien Briché, which saw them both in the gravel, caused a safety car deployment on lap nine. It was then confirmed Butti would receive a five-second penalty for the contact with Park.

At the restart, Ley tried to pass Butti but then settled in behind before the safety car was quickly called into action again after an incident between Gabriele Covini’s Hyundai and Santiago Concepción’s Audi into Turn 1.

When Covini’s car was recovered, there was a one-lap dash to the line. Taylor was able to hold on, crossing the line ahead of Butti; however, with a condensed field, Butti’s penalty dropped him to eighth, promoting Ley and Halder to the final positions on the podium.

The win was Taylor’s first in TCR Europe in only his second full season, while Ley’s points haul gives him an 18-point lead over Junesung Park heading to the next round at Spa-Francorchamps on 15–17 May.