Attila Tassi wins opening race in Barcelona as title race goes down to the wire
KCMG’s Attila Tassi completed a lights-to-flag victory in the penultimate TCR Europe series race of the season, while fifth place for Mikel Azcona means four drivers are still in contention for the title tomorrow.
Pole-sitter Tassi made the best getaway and was never headed throughout the 12-lap encounter, beating Target Competition’s Dusan Borkovic to the line by three and a half seconds.
WTCR regular Norbert Michelisz claimed the final step on the podium in his first TCR Europe series appearance.
Championship leader Azcona could only manage fifth after starting third, while Team WRT’s Jean-Karl Vernay made a superb recovery from 13th on the grid to finish sixth in his Audi RS 3 LMS.
It means that Azcona heads into tomorrow’s final race of the year on 177 points, 23 ahead of Borkovic on 154, with Tassi and Vernay now tied on 153.
Tassi’s run to the flag was a routine affair once he got his Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR into Turn 1 ahead of team-mate Josh Files. Borkovic got the jump on Azcona off the line to grab third, while Vernay made good progress from 13th to run 9th on the opening lap.
Files kept Borkovic at bay for the bulk of the race but dropped back to ninth after being passed by the Serbian’s Hyundai i30 N TCR into the first corner with three laps to go. He later pulled into the pits to retire.
That allowed Azcona to take fourth behind Michelisz’s M1RA Hyundai, but the PCR Sport Cupra driver fell under attack from the WestCoast Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR of Ash Sutton under braking for Turn 10.
The pair squabbled round the next corner before 2017 BTCC champion Sutton claimed the place for good entering Turn 12.
Azcona had to defend vigorously from the charging Vernay in the closing stages as the reigning TCR International Series champion tried in vein to find a way past.
Vernay’s had made substantial gains in the opening stages of the race, and was helped by the first lap safety car intervention to recover the stalled car of Nikola Miljkovic.
Vernay then made it past Dániel Nagy under braking for Turn 1 before profiting from Files’ misfortune to inherit a strong points haul at the finish.
Nagy performed a steady run to seventh in the second M1RA Hyundai i30 N TCR, finishing just ahead of Kris Richard of Target Competition.
Julien Briché brought his Peugeot 308TCR home ninth, while the third Target Competition Hyundai of Reece Barr completed the points finishers in tenth.
Race 2 is scheduled to take place tomorrow at 15:55 CEST.
