Nicola Baldan fights to victory in eventful first Paul Ricard race

Nicola Baldan fought his way from fourth on the grid to win an eventful first TCR Europe race of the weekend at Paul Ricard ahead of local hero Victor Weyrich.

Monlau Motorsport driver Viktor Andersson started from pole and headed the field into Turn 1, but immediately came under fire from team-mate Marco Butti who made a strong start from third on the grid.

Another strong-starting driver was SP Competition driver Mikhail Simonov who shot up from seventh on the grid to third after Turn 1.

Butti managed to get past Andersson briefly for the lead before the end of the first lap, a move allowing Simonov to pass both Andersson and Butti for the lead.

Butti and Andersson continued a tough fight for position with plenty of contact between the two Cupra team-mates, a fight ultimately ending in Andersson getting ahead.

Herrero Racing driver Weyrich was another driver to make leaps during the initial stages, climbing from eighth on the grid to snatch third on lap two with a move which seemingly was outside of the track limits.

The stewards soon announced his move would be investigated after the race.

Disaster struck BRC Racing Hyundai driver Gabriele Covini on lap three as the Italian driver pitted with a puncture.

And there were plenty of punctures in the race as Simonov was forced to pit from the lead of the race on the same lap, handing P1 over to ALM Motorsport driver and points leader Mike Halder.

But Halder’s luck only lasted until lap six as the Honda driver was forced to pit with a puncture.

Baldan was recovering ground quickly as the race progressed after a tentative start, passing Andersson for third place on lap six which soon became second place as Halder pitted.

Baldan then managed to snatch the lead from Weyrich with a daring move around the outside of the Cupra driver on lap nine.

Butti then became yet another victim of a puncture on the same lap, pitting from fourth place.

Baldan won the race by eight tenths of a second ahead of Weyrich while Andersson was a distant third, more than five seconds behind the leaders.

Ruben Volt drove a quiet race to finish fourth ahead of Tiago Pernía who came out on top after a tough fight for sixth place with Audi driver Nicolas Taylor.

Mateo Herrero finished seventh ahead of Alex Ley (Hyundai) who charged through the field from 22nd place to finish a strong eighth.

The second race of the weekend starts at 10:15 CEST on Sunday.