Junesung Park wins chaotic Barcelona finale as Marco Butti clinches title

Junesung Park won a chaotic last TCR Europe race of 2026 at Barcelona while Marco Butti survived to finish in sixth place and clinch the drivers’ title.

Audi driver Nicolas Taylor started from the reversed grid pole position and got a good getaway to head the field as the expected chaos ensued behind.

Butti started third and tried to go around the outside of Junui Park, who started second, into the first sequence of corners.

The two made contact which saw Butti drop down behind Ruben Volt, Mikhail Simonov and Junesung Park.

Junesung Park made a strong start from fifth place and passed his Solite Indigo Racing team-mate Junui Park for second place before the end of the first lap.

Junesung Park then quickly caught Taylor and challenged for the lead heading into Turn 1 of lap two.

The two made contact and team-mates Junesung and Junui Park were able to get past for first and second place.

Disaster struck title challenger Mike Halder who went off into the gravel briefly after contact with a rival driver on lap three, dropping down to the back of the field.

Former title challenger Viktor Andersson’s dreadful weekend continued as well, with the Monlau Motorsport driver heading into the pits and retirement on lap four with an engine issue.

Another former title challenger had his hopes of a strong result extinguished on lap six as Nicola Baldan came to a halt beside the track due to a broken radiator as a result of the mid-field melee.

BRC Racing driver Gabriele Covini spun off into the gravel on lap nine after contact with Giacomo Prandelli and the two had banged wheel several times prior to the incident.

This triggered the safety car which was out on track until five minutes was left on the clock.

Junesung Park made a strong restart ahead Volt while the fight for third fired up once again.

Audi driver Taylor challenged Cupra driver Adam Shepherd for fourth and the two banged wheels for several corners.

Taylor muscled Shepherd off track and got ahead, prompting Tiago Pernía to try and pass Shepherd for fifth.

Pernía went hard into the side of Shepherd and pushed him off into the gravel, a move resulting in both being left stranded and out of the race.

Taylor then made a very late move on Junui Park at Turn 1 on the following lap to snatch the final podium position.

Junesung Park won the race in style, close to three seconds ahead of Honda driver Volt while Taylor just below eight seconds behind in third.

Junui Park finished fourth ahead of Julien Briché who made an impressive charge to gain 14 places and finish fifth.

Butti crossed the finishing line in sixth place, scoring enough points to secure the drivers’ title with a margin of 11 points over Halder who fought his way back to finish ninth. Taylor finished third overall, 19 points behind Butti.

SP Competition driver Simonov finished the race in seventh ahead of former points leader Alex Ley.