Ignacio Montenegro wrapped up the TCR Europe series rookie championship at Brno, having won every event in the under 21s category this season, but the Argentine’s focus is firmly on the drivers’ title, as he remains the underdog going to Valencia, 31 points behind Franco Girolami but still in contention.

Montenegro is the third of three drivers who can win the 2024 TCR Europe series, with Girolami on course to wrap up his second title, though his CUPRA rival Aurélien Comte is just five points behind.

After a difficult Race 1, the ALM Motorsport team found more pace in the Honda Civic Type R FL5 TCR and Montenegro went from fourth to second, holding off the charging Audi of Bartosz Groszek and then the two CUPRAs of Comte and Girolami to take his fourth podium finish of the season.

“We’ve improved the car a lot today,” said Montenegro. “Yesterday we were two seconds off the pace, today we were just one second slower. Obviously with 30kg of compensation weight it was too hard to catch Levi as he had no kilos.

“We have a good chance in Valencia, it’s like my home race. We need some things to happen, but you never know.”

As the field caught him in the final laps, Montenegro explained he had to turn to different tactics to keep the faster cars behind.

“I was just playing as I knew they were much faster than me. On the exits I was waiting to go on the throttle, basically until they were on my rear bumper. We have a P5 car here, and we finished P2, so that means a lot to us.”