Gilles Magnus converted pole position into a maiden TCR Europe series victory in the opening race at Spa-Francorchamps, beating Audi stablemate Santiago Urrutia in a lights-to-flag performance.

Team WRT’s Urrutia finished just 1.551 seconds in arrears of Magnus (Comtoyou Racing), while Maxime Potty made it two WRT cars – and two Belgians – on the podium with a last-lap overtake on Aurélien Comte.

Magnus now moves into the lead of the championship, 22 points ahead Target Competition’s Josh Files, who failed to finish the race.

Magnus got a perfect getaway from pole position to comfortably lead Urrutia into La Source for the first time, while third place starter Maxime Potty bogged down heavily off the line.

Urrutia was then attacked under braking for Les Combe by the Peugeots of Aurélien Comte and Julien Briché, with both taking to the escape road on the outside.

Further back, Olli Kangas (WestCoast Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI) and Luca Engstler (M1RA Hyundai i30 N TCR) came together on the exit of Les Combes, with Kangas spinning into the the Peugeot of Teddy Clairet and bringing out the safety car as a result.

Briché’s race was ultimately run at the end of the first lap with the Frenchman touring back to the pits after losing speed on the run towards Pouhon. The Frenchman returned to track for a handful of laps before retiring.

Upon resumption, Magnus was unable to build the same sort of lead he had managed at the start of the race, with Urrutia shadowing the Comtoyou Audi for several laps.

Urrutia then made an audacious dive down the inside of Magnus at La Source, locking both front wheels and falling back into second on exit.

Magnus then kept the advantage and extended his lead to just over one and a half seconds by the flag.

Potty was left to rue his poor start which dropped him to sixth place at the end of the opening lap, but the Belgian fought back superbly to snatch third from Comte round the outside of Campus on the final tour.

Jimmy Clairet brought his Team Clairet Sport Peugeot 308TCR home fifth, ahead of the Cupra of Davit Kajaia who prevailed in a panel-bashing dispute with the Hyundai of Mat’o Homola.

Stian Paulsen, Luca Engstler and Tom Coronel rounded out the top 10 finishers.

Points leader Files had a race to forget as the Hyundai i30 N TCR driver retired, having started from the back of the grid following a heavy qualifying shunt. Fellow Brit Ash Sutton did not fare much better; his WRT VW Golf was left stranded on the grid, forcing the 2017 BTCC champion to start from the pit lane.

The end of the race was marred however by a nasty accident involving the Cupra of Abdulla Ali Al-Khelaifi and the JSB Compétition entry of Lilou Wadoux, with the latter’s Peugeot barrel-rolling into the gravel at Stavelot.

The second race of the weekend takes place on Sunday at 12:00 CEST, with Target Competition’s Dusan Borkovic starting from pole position.