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Norbert Michelisz wins by 0.0024 seconds as Mikel Azcona is penalised

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Norbert Michelisz won the first FIA TCR World Tour race of the weekend by just 0.0024 seconds as his BRC Hyundai team-mate Mikel Azcona was handed a five-second penalty for jumping the start.

Azcona started the race from pole ahead of Michelisz who briefly had to defend his second place from a fast-starting Yann Ehrlacher of Lynk & Co Cyan Racing.

Garry Rogers Motorsport driver Jordan Cox had a scare on the first lap as he got sideways in his new Peugeot, dropping down the order to finish 17th.

Thed Björk (Lynk & Co) started well from fifth place on the grid to pass TCR Australia champion Josh Buchan for fourth place on the first lap.

But the Hyundai driver got back past a lap later on the main straight, with Björk losing another place to Honda driver Ignacio Montenegro to drop down to sixth place.

As the field neared mid-point of the race, the stewards announced that Azcona, Aurélien Comte, Santiago Urrutia and Brad Harris were handed five-second penalties for jumping the start.

Azcona tried to extend his lead during the final couple of laps, but it was not enough for the Spaniard who dropped down to second place behind team-mate Michelisz by just 0.0024 seconds.

Ehrlacher closed in on Michelisz towards the end of the race but did not get close enough, finishing just eight tenths behind in third.

Buchan claimed a cominant TCR Australia victory in fourth place overall ahead of Montenegro, Björk and Ma Qing Hua.

Esteban Guerrieri of GOAT Racing Honda had a quiet race to finish eighth ahead of Lynk & Co driver Cody Burcher and Hyundai’s Néstor Girolami.

Ehrlacher’s podium finish has extended his lead further, now leading Guerrieri by 45 points while Björk has climbed past team-mate Urrutia, who finished 12th, to third place, 53 points from the lead.

The second and final race of the weekend starts at 11:50 local time/04:20 CEST on Sunday.