The drivers of the TCR Europe series put on some star performances during the latest Kumho FIA TCR World Tour event at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, with strong qualifying performances, podium finishes, and competitive racing all coming from the six drivers which participated.

The star of the weekend was Ruben Volt, with the 19-year-old making his debut in the category along with reigning TCR Europe teams’ champions ALM Motorsport, who finished on the podium in second place, chasing down Hyundai Motorsport driver Néstor Girolami in a close finish.

“Finally, everything came together,” said Volt. “We’re confident we have the speed against the world’s best. I messed up the start, so I just thought to myself if there was any chance to finish on the podium or even win, I just have to send it, there’s nothing else to do.

“I didn’t know Girolami’s tyre situation as he led most of the race, and my tyres were starting to go away, so it was tough, but it was fun.”

Another strong performance came from JSB Compétition’s Julien Briché. The French driver had a good run to cross the line seventh in Race 1, before a post-race penalty for contact with fellow TCR Europe competitor dropped him back, but he still enjoyed a strong showing.

“It was a great race, and it was a pretty intense start because there were a lot of battles up front, but I still managed to get through the first two laps so that was good,” said Briché.

“After that, I was able to create a gap between me and the cars behind, but the safety car bunched everyone back up a bit, so it got a bit tricky. Managing the tyres in this heat was really tough, very, very tough.”

Felipe Fernández was also making his debut in the category, and the highlight performance of his weekend was battling from the front row in Race 2, allowing team-mate Esteban Guerrieri through before fighting hard with 2017 world champion Thed Björk, diving back past him, before dropping back in the race, but the Spanish driver finished all three races in the points.

“The experience here was good, it was a good benchmark to see where I am as a driver,” said Fernández. “Driving against the top drivers was a really good experience, they are hard but fair, but it’s been really tough in Valencia here with these temperatures as it was really hot inside the car.

“Race 2 was really good, helping my teammate. My setup in that race wasn’t too good, I was having issues with understeer, so my setup was only good for the first two laps, and from lap three I started to struggle, so I did what I could and learned a lot from these guys this weekend.”

Eric Gené’s races didn’t go to plan, with damage in Race 1, a non-start in Race 2 with the damage from Race 1 having broken his steering, followed by another DNF fighting from the back of the grid in the final race, but his qualifying performance was exceptional, placing his CUPRA Leon VZ TCR in sixth place in the highly competitive field on both his and the team’s FIA category debut.

“I’m really, really happy,” said Gené after qualifying. “The team did an incredible job, being the one of the drivers not doing the regular World Tour season to get into Q2, and also P6, ahead of some Hyundais and Lynk & Cos.”