Antti Buri and his LMS Racing SEAT León dominated the second race at Jerez de la Frontera, claiming a lights-to-flag victory.
The Finn took the lead at the start from pole position ahead of César Machado, while Francisco Mora’s Veloso Motorsport SEAT León stalled and the young Portuguese was forced to come back to the pits and retire.
Lap after lap, Buri consistently improved his leading margin. Behind him Machado tried to defend his second place from Frédéric Caprasse (DG Sport Compétition Opel Astra).
A few seconds adrift, José Rodrigues (Gen Motorsport Honda Civic), Francisco Abreu (Team Novadriver Volkswagen Golf) and Francisco Carvalho (Veloso Motorsport SEAT León) were in a close fight for the fourth position. On lap 6, Abreu overtook Rodrigues and closed the gap from the duo Machado-Caprasse.
On lap 8, Machado was given a drive-through for a grid infringement and dropped to seventh, which promoted Caprasse and Abreu to second and third respectively. On lap 9, Carvalho overtook Rodrigues for fourth.
Positions froze in the last part of the race, as Buri cruised to a comfortable victory.
However, as far as the TCR Trophy Europe is concerned, Corthals and Caprasse were the best scorers of the event, ahead of Buri and the pairing of Abreu-Gião. This enabled Corthals to maintain the point leadership, while Caprasse and Buri moved up to second and third.
The final round valid for the TCR Europe Trophy will be TCR Germany’s race meeting at Hockenheim on October 1 and 2.