TCR Europe’s frontrunners had a strong weekend at the opening round of the TCR Spain championship at the Circuito de Madrid Jarama, with Monlau Motorsport and Team Clairet Sport, last year’s TCR Europe title contenders, both scoring wins with their new signings.

In the first race, it was Viktor Andersson who dominated from pole position, leading the way ahead of Estonia’s Sten-Dorian Piirimägi. It was also the first glimpse of the Spanish team’s new livery, which featured the Swedish flag adorning the roof of the CUPRA Leon VZ TCR, along with yellow markings on the sides – with the cars of his TCR Europe team-mates Adam Shepherd and Marco Butti set to feature similar patriotic markings of the British Union Flag and the Italian il Tricolore.

Piirimägi had led both of the free practice sessions in his ALM Motorsport Honda Civic, and looked set to be Andersson’s main challenger for the race, but a slow start from second on the grid meant he spent much of the race recovering the ground he lost, and he was stuck behind the Audi RS 3 LMS of Team Clairet Sport driver Erik Zabala.

Eventually making his way past on lap 15, Andersson now had too much of a lead and the Swedish racer controlled the pace to secure victory.

The second race provided the thrills of the day. ALM Motorsport had another chance with their driver Demir Eröge starting from pole position, but the Turkish racer had a slow start and dropped positions, allowing TCR journeyman Sandro Pelatti to emerge in the lead in his SP Compétition CUPRA.

SP Compétition, which are returning to TCR Europe this year after a year away, and Pelatti, who drove an Audi during the last half of the 2025 TCR Europe season, were on course for victory, with the Italian initially building over a four second lead over the battling pair of Zabala and Pelatti's team-mate Manuel Fernandes.

When Fernandes eventually passed Zabala, he closed on Pelatti, and the two incredibly made contact at the first corner at the start of Lap 12. Pelatti was out of the race with damage, while Fernandes was given a penalty for the contact.

This handed victory to Zabala in the Team Clairet Sport Audi, who was chased across the line by Piirimägi’s Honda. Andersson completed the podium to cement a strong debut in the series, but more importantly it was a very competitive first experience with Monlau Motorsport and the CUPRA, after three years racing with MA:GP and Lynk & Co 03.

Andersson will therefore start the 2026 TCR Europe season at Mugello on March 20-22 also as the TCR Spain championship leader, while 2024 TCR Europe teams' champions ALM Motorsport are the leaders in the TCR Spain teams' title.