A 1-2 for Cyan Racing and Coronel takes TCR Europe honours in Race 2

Santiago Urrutia and Thed Björk gave Cyan Racing Lynk & Co a 1-2 finish in an incident-packed Race 2 in Portimão, with the Audi RS 3 LMS of Frédéric Vervisch completing the podium positions for Audi Sport Team Comtoyou and Tom Coronel taking maximum points in TCR Europe by finishing fifth overall in another Comtoyou Audi.

Urrutia made a good start from pole position with Björk up to P2 as the field streamed through Turn 1. At the exit to Turn 3, the Honda Civic Type R FL5 of Néstor Girolami made contact with Kobe Pauwels’ Audi, which forced the Belgian teenager to run wide at Turn 4. As he rejoined the track, the car made heavy contact with the Target Competition Hyundai Elantra N of Dušan Borković and Pauwels was forced to pull up. The incident meant the Safety Car was deployed, while both Girolami and Borković limped back to the pits. Girolami was soon back out on track but Borković was forced to retire. As the Safety Car was deployed, Frédéric Vervisch passed Tom Coronel for third place but Vervisch was ordered to give the position back.

The Safety Car circulated for four laps while Pauwels’ car was recovered and so racing resumed at the start of Lap 6. Girolami, however, didn’t even reach the start line as his front-right steering failed at the exit to the final corner, leaving the Honda stranded at the exit of Turn 15 and the Safety Car called into action for a second time.

Another three laps were completed behind the Safety Car and racing resumed on Lap 9, which mean six of the revised race distance of fourteen laps remained. Vervisch immediately attacked Coronel for the third place he’d been told to give back, while further down the order Isaac Smith passed Viktor Andersson for P15.

Several battles then started to develop, with a three-way scrap between Yann Ehrlacher, Rob Huff and Ma Qing Hua seeing Huff pass Ma for P6 and then Ehrlacher passing Ma for P7. On Lap 11, John Filippi passed Felipe Fernández for P10 and, more importantly for the French driver, P2 in TCR Europe. In the championship’s Rookie class, a three-way fight for honours had developed between Ben Bargwanna, Viktor Andersson and Isaac Smith. Also on Lap 11, Vervisch finally managed to get past Coronel to reclaim third place in the overall standings while Mikel Azcona then also passed Coronel for P4 coming through Turn 14.

There were more dramas on Lap 12, when Viktor Davidovski succeeded in passing Felipe Fernández for P3 in TCR Europe, but Fernández then appeared to miss his braking point for Turn 5 and made contact with the rear of Davidovski’s car, causing the Macedonian driver to half-spin. As a result of the incident, Rubén Fernandez passed his brother to move into P3 and Felipe was later given a ten-second penalty for causing the collision. Both Isaac Smith and Nicola Baldan passed Viktor Andersson on the same lap. On the race’s penultimate lap, Norbert Michelisz passed Ma Qing Hua for P8 and the Chinese driver was then passed by John Filippi for P9 on the final lap.

But Santiago Urrutia was untroubled at the head of the field and scored a lights-to-flag victory ahead of Thed Björk to record a 1-2 for Cyan Racing Lynk and Co, with Vervisch finishing third ahead of Azcona. In TCR Europe, Tom Coronel took the 40 points for the win, with John Filippi finishing second and Rubén Fernández third. Ben Bargwanna was fourth and the leading Rookie ahead of Isaac Smith.

In the TCR Europe Drivers’ Championship, Filippi and Coronel leave Portimão on the same number of points, with Filippi ahead in the standings thanks to his first and second places in the two Portuguese races. Comtoyou Racing leads sister team Comtoyou in the Teams’ standings, while Isaac Smith tops the Rookie class and Coronel heads the Diamond Trophy.

Santiago Urrutia (race winner): “I’m really happy for Cyan Racing and Lynk & Co – it’s the first weekend that we’ve done with the new TCR model and so my congratulations to everyone here in Portimão, in China, in Sweden and everyone involved in this project. It was a difficult race for sure; when you come with a new car, you always need to do something different and learn the new car but to get the win today was a big push for the team. Now we focus on the next one!”

Race result

1. Santiago Urrutia (Cyan Racing Lynk & Co, Lynk & Co 03) 14 laps

2. Thed Björk (Cyan Racing Lynk & Co, Lynk & Co 03) +0.461

3. Frédéric Vervisch (Audi Sport Team Comtoyou, Audi RS 3 LMS) +1.046

4. Mikel Azcona (BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N) +1.435

5. Tom Coronel (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS) +4.045

TCR Europe result

1. Tom Coronel (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS) 14 laps

2. John Filippi (Comtoyou, Audi RS 3 LMS) +3.396

3. Rubén Fernández (RC2 Racing Team, Audi RS 3 LMS) +9.276

4. Ben Bargwanna (Team Clairet Sport – Burson Auto Parts Racing, Peuegot 308) +11.224

5. Isaac Smith (Volcano Motorsport, Audi RS 3 LMS) +11.894