Julien Briché wins a bruising TCR Europe race at Monza

Julien Briché returned to the top step of the TCR podium at Monza, one year after his success in the final event of 2019. The French driver completed a spotless performance at the wheel of his Peugeot 308, while most of the other competitors looked more focused on eliminating each other in a physical race.
Current championship leader Daniel Lloyd led over the early laps and then followed Briché home to secure a second place that helped him to stretch his margin in the standings to 51 points over Mike Halder. Young Belgian rookie Nicolas Baert confirmed his potential with a third place that elevated him to third in the standings.
Evgenii Leonov was dropped to the back of the grid following an engine change, while Andreas Bäckman and Jean-Laurent Navarro did not take part; the Swede because of his injured wrist and the Frenchman due to an engine failure.
At the start, Lloyd was faster than pole-sitter Mehdi Bennani and led the field into the first chicane. During the opening lap, Bennani and Jimmy Clairet collided at Lesmo 1 and retired. 
Briché took the lead from Lloyd on lap 2; behind them Teddy Clairet and Pepe Oriola were fighting for P3. They made contact at the Curvone, Oriola limped back to the pits while Clairet dropped to ninth, the last of a group that was fighting for P3 that included Mat’o Homola, Mike Halder, Baert, Felice Jelmini, John Filippi and Dániel Nagy.
As Briché was able to pull away from Lloyd, the battle for P3 heated up with plenty of overtaking, clashing and pushing; on lap 6, Baert and Teddy Clairet made contact and the latter went off at the Parabolica. Two laps later, Mike Halder and Homola crashed into each other twice until both cars went off at the Roggia chicane. 
Briché took the chequered flag three seconds ahead of Lloyd. Baert completed the podium, while Felice Jelmini managed to pass John Filippi for P4 on the final lap as did Sami Taoufik with Nagy for P6. After the race, Taoufik was given two 30-second penalties for jump-start and for an incident with another car; this dropped him from sixth to 16th. 
Race 2 is scheduled to start tomorrow at 13:00 CEST; live streaming is at www.tcr-series.com.

Race 1 result
1. Julien Briché (JSB Compétition, Peugeot 308), 10 laps 
2. Daniel Lloyd (Brutal Fish Racing, Honda Civic Type R), 3.225
3. Nicolas Baert (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 10.102
4. Felice Jelmini (PMA Motorsport, Hyundai i30 N), 10.404
5. John Filippi (Target Competition, Hyundai i30 N), 10.601

Championship points
1. Daniel Lloyd 173 pts; 2. Mike Halder 122; 3. Nicolas Baert 117

Picture: TCR Europe