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A successful opening race at Salzburgring saw Aditis Racing claim a dominant 1–2 finish. Martin Kadlečík secured his maiden victory in the TCR Eastern Europe championship, finishing ahead of his teammate Bartosz Groszek and Ivars Vallers from LV Racing.
Ghermandi started from pole alongside Kadlečík, with Adam Kout and Groszek on the second row. However, Ghermandi had a poor start and dropped to third in his Honda before the first chicane. Kadlečík seized the lead, followed by Kout in second and Ghermandi in third. Behind them came Groszek, Jiří Zbožínek, Petr Čížek and Ivars Vallers. On the third lap, Vallers attempted to pass Čížek at the first chicane but ran out of space, was forced to take avoiding action, and went off track. He rejoined at the back of the field.
Kadlečík steadily extended his lead over Kout by tenths of a second each lap, but his advantage disappeared when a safety car was deployed. Petr Čížek had gone off track and beached his Cupra in the gravel, unable to continue without assistance.
When the race resumed, Ghermandi immediately attacked Kout, pulling alongside him into the first chicane. Although Kout initially held position, contact occurred in Turn 2 when Ghermandi collided with the rear of Kout’s Hyundai, damaging the car and leaving the rear bumper flapping.
Ghermandi moved up to second, and the resulting slowdown gave Groszek an opportunity to pass Kout for third. Groszek then began pressuring Ghermandi and eventually overtook him on the outside of Turn 10.
That move secured a double podium for Aditis Racing, with Kadlečík taking the win and Groszek finishing second. Ghermandi was running third, with Kout in fourth, but with just five minutes remaining, Kout was forced to pit due to a punctured left-front tire. He joined his teammate Zbožínek, who had pitted earlier with technical issues.
Eventually Giacomo Ghermandi received 10 seconds penalty for his incident with Kout and dropped to sixth behind Petr Semerád, Žarko Knego and eventually third Ivars Vallers.
