Josh Buchan strikes in Phillip Island Race 1 as Tony D’Alberto drops to last

Josh Buchan won the first shortened TCR Australia race of the weekend at Phillip Island as pole sitter Tony D’Alberto hit trouble on the first lap and dropped down to finish last.

HMO Hyundai driver Buchan started third but challenged Brad Harris for second on the opening lap.

As Buchan went down the inside of Harris, the two made contact which resulted in Harris hitting Wall Racing team-mate D’Alberto, enabling Buchan to snatch the lead.

D’Alberto dropped down to finish 14th and last following the incident while Buchan went on to win the race by close to 1.5 seconds.

Audi driver Zac Soutar was able to get past Brad Harris, who had qualified a career-best second, for second place. But the Honda driver was able to snatch back second place on the last lap.

Ashley Seward Motorsport’s Dylan O’Keeffe was close to the duo of Harris and Soutar throughout the race, but not close enough to seriously challenge them and had to settle for fourth.

Ben Bargwanna (Peugeot) beat Clay Richards (Cupra) to fifth place, with the duo exchanging places several times during the race which was shortened due to a delay in the race weekend schedule.

Will Harris (Honda) secured the reversed grid pole position for Race 2, which starts 13:25 local time on Sunday, by finishing tenth.