Jack Young took a lights-to-flag victory in Race 1 at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya to record his second win of the season, but with Tom Coronel finishing second and the newly-crowned 2022 Drivers’ Champion Franco Girolami in third place, Comtoyou Racing completed a remarkable clean sweep of all four TCR Europe titles by securing the Teams’ championship with one race remaining.

At the start, pole-sitter Young led the field into T1 ahead of Coronel, but a poor start from Isidro Callejas meant he’d dropped to P5 behind Girolami and Frédéric Vervisch, although Callejas soon passed Vervisch for P4 once again. By the end of the opening lap, Josh Files had made up seven places after an engine change meant the Target Competition Hyundai Elantra N started from the back of the grid. Evgenii Leonov then paid a brief visit to a gravel trap after an ill-judged move on Marco Butti.

On Lap 2 Files made up another couple of places while Klim Gavrilov and Mike Halder both passed John Flippi for P10 and P9 respectively. Michelle Halder spun following contact with Felipe Fernandez, which was possibly the reason for Fernandez pulling up shortly afterwards. On the next lap, Pepe Oriola ran wide at Turn 1 and so had to give back the position to Nicola Baldan while Baldan’s teammate Files passed Filippi for P11.

By lap 5, Young led Coronel by just over a second in a tight battle that would last for the remainder of the twelve-lap race. One lap later, Mike Halder was attacking Gavrilov for P9 with Files right behind, while on Lap 7 Vervisch passed Callejas for P4. There was also contact between Halder and Gavrilov at the start of the lap, with Gavrilov’s bumper hanging off and rubbing on the CUPRA’s tyres. Halder was shown a warning flag for his driving standards just before Files passed Halder for P10 in the chicane.

On Lap 8, Files then passed Gavrilov for P9 and Halder resumed his battle with the Volcano Motorsport driver which eventually resulted in the Honda passing the CUPRA for P10. Over the final few laps, Young’s lead over Coronel shrank to a little over three-tenths and then opened out to over a second in the race’s closing stages. There were no further changes of position among the top ten, although the final lap saw contact involving Giacomo Ghermandi while he was trying to dive up inside of Rubén Fernandez, who closed the door on the LEMA Racing CUPRA. Both drivers continued, but Ghermandi dropped several positions as a result of the incident.

But there were no such dramas for Jack Young. After winning the opening race of the season in Portimão, he took his second win in the year’s penultimate race. Coronel’s challenge faded over the final few laps and he crossed the line just under a second behind the Halder Motorsport Honda with Girolami finishing third; the two podium finishes means that Comtoyou Racing cannot now be caught in the Teams’ championship battle. Having already won the Drivers’ title for Girolami after Qualifying and previously securing both the Rookie and Diamond Trophy categories for Marco Butti and Viktor Davidovski respectively, the Belgian team will have plenty to celebrate at the TCR Europe season prizegiving on Sunday night.

Race 1 result

1.     Jack Young (Halder Motorsport, Honda Civic Type R)   12 laps

2.     Tom Coronel (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS)   +0.993

3.     Franco Girolami (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS)   +12.430

4.     Frédéric Vervisch (Comtoyou Team Audi Sport, Audi RS 3 LMS)   +13.043

5.     Isidro Callejas (Volcano Motorsport, CUPRA Leon Competición)  +13.946

6.     Jáchym Galáš (HYUNDAI | Janík Motorsport, Hyundai Elantra N)   +16.081

Championship points

1.Girolami 391pts; 2. Files 285pts; 3. Coronel 281pts; 4. Gavrilov 256pts; 5. Callejas 254pts

Race 2 is scheduled to start at 12.05 CEST on Sunday and will be streamed live via the TCR Portal, on TCR TV and the TCR Europe series’ social media platforms.

Race 2 live stream - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRbIIgzYuXc