Marco Butti is celebrating after winning the drivers’ and young drivers’ championships after a closely fought season in TCR Europe, the final year under the current promoter Rubén Fernández.

The title is also fitting as Fernández was Butti’s team principal during his single FIA TCR World Tour campaign in 2024.

The Italian burst onto the European touring car scene in 2022. Despite starting the season late, he easily won the rookie category in an Audi RS 3 run by Comtoyou Racing.

He focused on the TCR Italy championship in 2023, and despite taking three wins with Target Competition he finished fourth in the standings in one of the series’ most competitive years, behind international stars Franco Girolami, Niels Langeveld, and Aurélien Comte.

In 2024 he bypassed TCR Europe and went straight to the FIA TCR World Tour as team-mate to Esteban Guerrieri, who is now his driving coach, in the privateer GOAT Racing team, securing three podiums.

Last year he returned to TCR Europe with MM Motorsport, and with the Italian team he headed to the finale leading the standings, but a difficult weekend saw him shuffled down to fifth in the final order.

There were no such troubles this season, however. Qualifying comfortably in the top ten with Monlau Motorsport, the reigning champions, Butti was well-placed to do all he needed to this weekend, which was to score good points against his main competitors. Although the gap closed to five points after Mike Halder’s pole position and second place on Saturday, Butti’s sixth and Halder’s eighth in Sunday’s race meant Butti was confirmed as drivers’ champion in his third season of competition.

“It’s been a lot of hard work with my team, and my coach Esteban Guerrieri, and my family, but we’ve checked our target for the season, so I’m very happy,” said Butti.

“I was in a position to fight for the title in 2025 with another brand and another team, so that’s good for a driver, and we must continue this momentum into the next season.

“My car was really good today, my target at the start was to go for the win, so I tried to attack from Turn 1, but I then slid outside at Turn 3 and made contact with Ruben Volt, and then at Turn 4 I was bumped in the rear and on my right side. Later in the race it was tough, but I heard that Mike and Andersson were at the back, so I knew I could manage it late in the race.”