The reigning TCR Europe Drivers’ Champion Mehdi Bennani gave the Hyundai Elantra N its first win in a sprint race when the Sébastien Loeb Racing driver held off a determined challenge from the CUPRA Leon Competición of Mikel Azcona to record a lights-to-flag victory in Race 2 at the Slovakiaring. Franco Girolami finished in third place following another thrilling battle for the final podium place.

After starting from pole position, Bennani led the field into Turn 1, but the strongest start came from Girolami whose Honda Civic Type-R leapt from fifth on the grid into P2 by halfway through the opening lap. Not so fortunate was Bennani’s young team-mate Sami Taoufik, whose car had to pushed off the grid after a transmission problem. The safety car was deployed as a precaution but the car was soon safely back in the pit lane and so the safety car period only lasted a single lap.

After winning yesterday’s Race 1, Azcona clearly had ideas about claiming another victory in Race 2. The Spaniard had started from ninth on the grid but was already up to fourth by the time the safety car was deployed. Also on the move through the pack was the Hyundai i30 N of Mat’o Homola; after the disappointment of not starting Race 1, the Slovakian driver had made up four places on the opening lap and lay in P8.

Once the safety car came in, Azcona made short work of passing Klim Gavrilov’s Audi for third place, while Felice Jelmini in another of the Sébastien Loeb Racing Hyundai Elantra cars ran wide at the exit to Turn 2 and lost two places. He would drop another position at the same corner on the next lap, going from P6 to P9 in a little over a lap. On the following lap, Azcona passed Girolami for second position and set off in pursuit of Bennani to set up a scrap for the win that would last for the remainder of the race. Further down the order, there were a number of battles going on. Homola was passed by both Tom Coronel (for P7) and Felice Jelmini (for p8) in quick succession, although the Hyundai was soon able to re-take eighth place from Jelmini. On Lap 6, there was contact between the Audi of Dušan Borkovič and Niels Langeveld’s Hyundai, with the Netherlands driver forced to take to the grass. After reviewing the incident, the Stewards decided to take no further action.

Over the race’s closing laps, Azcona was pressuring Bennani and three drivers were fighting for third position. Coronel was also keen to join that battle after passing Isidro Callejas on Lap 8. On the following lap, Langeveld pulled into the pits with an apparent overheating issue, possibly caused by his earlier excursion through the grass. Baert then passed Homola for P8 once again, but by now all eyes were on the two battles going on for the podium places.

Despite lap after lap of intense pressure from Azcona, Bennani held on to do the one thing he failed to do during his 2020 TCR Europe season. He held his nerve to take the victory by a fraction over half a second, with Girolami also holding off his pursuers to secure third place. Behind those three, Klim Gavrilov finished fourth and Dániel Nagy was fifth.

Race 2 result
1. Mehdi Bennani (Sébastien Loeb Racing, Hyundai Elantra N)   11 laps
2. Mikel Azcona (Volcano Motorsport, CUPRA León Competición)   +0.501
3. Franco Girolami (PSS Racing Team, Honda Civic Type-R)   +2.961
4. Klim Gavrilov (VRC-Team, Audi RS 3 LMS)   +3.858
5. Dániel Nagy (Zengo Motorsport, CUPRA León Competición)   +4.698

Championship points
1. Azcona 84 pts; 2. Bennani 62 pts; 3. Nagy 60 pts; 4. Baert 58 pts; 5. Coronel 55 pts

The TCR Europe series next moves to the south of France for Round 2 at the Circuit Paul Ricard at Le Castellet over the weekend of May 29/30.