German WTCR victory for Honda Civic Type R TCR

Esteban Guerreiri © DR

Esteban Guerrieri claimed his first WTCR – FIA World Touring Car Cup victory of 2018 with a commanding performance in his Honda Civic Type R TCR at the legendary Nurburgring Nordschleife in Germany.

Driving his JAS Motorsport-built car at the 15-mile ‘Green Hell’, the Argentinian gave ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport a deserved win at their home event in Race Two. He was ninth in Race Three.

 

Team-mates Yann Ehrlacher and James Thompson achieved best finishes of sixth and 19th across the weekend. Ehrlacher is fifth in the Drivers’ Championship while Münnich lie third in the Teams’ points.

Boutsen Ginion Racing secured their best WTCR finish with fourth in Race Three from teenager Benjamin Lessennes. Team-mate Tom Coronel was in the points in every race with two ninths and a 10th.

Kris Richard made his series debut with KCMG and took a best finish of 16th; the Swiss driver having to carry a 20kg ‘wildcard’ weight penalty against the other cars.

Ollie Taylor maintained his push for the TCR UK title at Knockhill as the Pyro Motorsport driver finished second in a thrilling opening race in Scotland.

Series debutants Josh Price and Sean Walkinshaw ensured that the Hondas claimed four podiums across the pair of races; Price taking a third and a second for BMR Academy and Walkinshaw third in Race Two in his Sean Walkinshaw Racing Civic.

VFR Racing’s Finlay Crocker, driving the only 2018 Civic in the series, qualified well in sixth, but was a double retiree due to a pair of on-track incidents.

Jose Rodrigues secured his first TCR Italy podium finish of the year at Paul Ricard in a wet second race that was held entirely behind the safety car and was red-flagged and declared at one-third distance with half-points awarded.

His Target Competition team-mates Jurgen Schmarl and Marco Pellegrini were next up and lie ninth and 10th in the Drivers’ Championship with Rodrigues seventh.

Pellegrini was the best placed of the trio in a dry Race One in fourth. Schmarl and Rodrigues were fifth and sixth while MM Motorsport duo Max Mugelli and Lorenzo Nicoli were both taken out of Race One by rivals.

Mads Fischer, JAS Motorsport TCR Project Leader, said: « It’s great to see the Honda Civic Type R TCR on the top step of the podium in WTCR for the second time in as many race weekends, and we must say a big congratulations to Esteban Guerrieri and to ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport for maximising their opportunity at a circuit we knew was not going to be the car’s strongest. Four podiums in TCR UK and one in TCR Italy for the 2017-spec Civic shows that our customers with this model can still be incredibly competitive in two very closely-fought series and we look forward to hearing about more success stories next weekend. »

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