Nicolas Baert romps to home TCR Europe victory at Zolder
Comtoyou Racing’s Nicolas Baert continued his domination of the Zolder weekend with victory in the opening TCR Europe series race of the weekend.
The Audi driver withstood a safety car intervention and a full course yellow period during an incident-packed 14-lap encounter to beat Mike Halder’s Honda Civic Type-R TCR by three seconds at the flag.
Mat’o Homola completed the podium in his BRC Racing Hyundai i30 N TCR.
Off the line, pole-sitter Baert initially looked to have bogged down as the lights went out, allowing Homola to grab the lead into the first corner.
Homola then ran slightly wide at Turn 3, which gave Baert the momentum he needed to seize back the lead approaching the Boutsen Chicane.
Halder made a terrific start to catapult his Profi Car Team Halder Honda Civic Type-R TCR into third place, which then became second following an assertive manoeuvre on Homola at Turn 1 on the second lap of 14.
The safety car was then deployed following two incidents on the same lap which ended the races of both Jessica and Andreas Bäckman.
Jessica was tagged in the rear by the JSB Compétition Peugeot 308TCR of Florian Briché at Turn 11, while Andreas suffered heavy damage to the front of his Hyundai i30 N TCR after hitting the wall approaching the final corner.
The elder Bäckman had been dicing with the Comtoyou Racing Audi RS 3 LMS of Sami Taoufik, which appeared to move in the braking zone. Bäckman’s car then wobbled after putting a wheel onto the grass before slewing across the track and into the concrete wall.
Baert led Halder away at the restart with Homola in third but there was trouble for Bennani who slowed at the exit of Turn 11 with a technical issue.
The Audi driver crawled around to the pit-lane to retire.
Florian Briché was involved in another incident just after the restart, this time bringing out the full course yellow period following contact with JSB Compétition team-mate Jean-Laurent Navarro at the final corner.
Having started from the back of the grid following a post-qualifying engine change penalty, Julien Briché’s race failed to get much better as the Peugeot 308TCR pulled up with mechanical gremlins just three laps from the finish.
The Frenchman had been challenging for ninth with fellow Peugeot driver Jimmy Clairet, but slowed in the final sector before stopping.
Out front, it was a faultless race from Baert who claimed the victory by 2.885s from Halder and Homola.
Behind Nagy, Dan Lloyd was the best of the Brutal Fish Racing Honda Civic Type-Rs in fifth, having climbed from ninth on the grid.
He finished ahead of team-mate and Brutal Fish team owner Martin Ryba, while Michelle Halder was seventh.
The pair of Team Clairet Sport Peugeot 308TCRs of Teddy and Jimmy Clairet came home eighth and ninth, while Pepe Oriola rounded out the top 10.
The second race of the weekend is scheduled to take place tomorrow at 15:20 CET
