Valencia kicks off European FIA TCR World Tour part with 18-car field
The FIA TCR World Tour will kick off its European part of the calendar at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia this weekend with a field of 18 cars, including seven guest entries.
Esteban Guerrieri heads to Spain as leader after a strong start in Mexico at the beginning of May, scoring pole and two victories behind the wheel of his Honda Civic.
The GOAT Racing driver is heading Lynk & Co’s Thed Björk, who won the first race of the season, by 12 points as the Swedish driver once again was the top scoring Cyan Racing driver.
Björk has got his two team-mates Santiago Urrutia and Yann Ehrlacher behind in third and fourth place respectively, 26 and 30 points adrift.
Aurélien Comte shares fourth place with fellow Frenchman Ehrlacher after a solid first race weekend with Cupra team SP Competition.
Guerrieri will carry 40kg of compensation weight this weekend, with Björk and Urrutia on 30kg, Ehrlacher 20kg and Comte 10kg.
The BRC Hyundai drivers had a nightmare start to the season with its drivers Néstor Girolami, Mikel Azcona and Norbert Michelisz placed 12th, 13th and 14th overall, last of the drivers who have scored points so far.
The Italian team stated that the issues was due to the high altitude in Mexico and local hero Azcona is confident they will bounce back this weekend.
“I am certain you will see a much better result for the team in Valencia,” said Azcona.
“It’s a track I really like, it’s my home track and I’m confident that we’re going to be much stronger than we were in Mexico. We already saw in Mexico that in Sector 2 and Sector 3 we were competitive against the other drivers because the balance of our Hyundai Elantra N TCR felt super-good.
“The problem was coming from the altitude, which won’t be an issue in Valencia. I really enjoy driving at Valencia and it’s going to be a great weekend to be there with my family and fans supporting me.”
The guest entries for this round include notable names such as last year’s FIA TCR World Tour regular Marco Butti who races for GOAT Racing in the TCR Europe this year.
Other TCR Europe front-runners are present such as ALM Motorsport driver Ruben Volt (Honda), JSB Competition’s Julien Briché and Lynk & Co driver Viktor Andersson of MA:GP.
The Valencia weekend will just like Mexico feature three races where the grid for race two is reversed based on the top ten results of the first race. The third and final race grid is decided on the number of points scored in qualifying and the first two races.
The race weekend starts with two free practice sessions on Friday, followed by qualifying and the first race on Saturday and the final two races on Sunday.
TCR Spain will race at Valencia as well this weekend, albeit separately from FIA TCR World Tour.
Valencia time table
Times in CEST
Friday 13/6
14:30 – Free Practice 1
17:00 – Free Practice 2
Saturday 14/6
11:15 – Qualifying
16:50 – Race 1
Sunday 15/6
10:40 – Race 2
15:30 – Race 3
FIA TCR World Tour – Valencia entry list
4 – Julien Briché – JSB Compétition – Hyundai Elantra N TCR
10 – Viktor Andersson – MA:GP – Lynk & Co 03 TCR
11 – Marco Butti – GOAT Racing – Honda Civic Type R FL5 TCR
19 – Felipe Fernández – GOAT Racing – Honda Civic Type R FL5 TCR
27 – Ruben Volt – ALM Motorsport – Honda Civic Type R FL5 TCR
28 – Eric Gené – Monlau Motorsport – Cupra Leon VZ TCR
45 – Raphaël Fournier – JSB Compétition – Honda Civic Type R FL5 TCR
105 – Norbert Michelisz – BRC Hyundai – Hyundai Elantra N TCR
107 – Aurélien Comte – SP Compétition – CUPRA Leon VZ
111 – Thed Björk – Lynk & Co Cyan Racing – Lynk & Co 03 FL
112 – Santiago Urrutia – Lynk & Co Cyan Racing – Lynk & Co 03 FL
123 – Ignacio Montenegro – GOAT Racing – Honda Civic Type R FL5 TCR
127 – John Filippi – SP Compétition – Cupra Leon VZ
129 – Néstor Girolami – BRC Hyundai – Hyundai Elantra N TCR
155 – Ma Qing Hua – Lynk & Co Cyan Racing – Lynk & Co 03 FL
168 – Yann Ehrlacher – Lynk & Co Cyan Racing – Lynk & Co 03 FL
186 – Esteban Guerrieri – GOAT Racing – Honda Civic Type R FL5 TCR
196 – Mikel Azcona – BRC Hyundai – Hyundai Elantra N TCR
