Team orders the key to TCR Europe title for Jenson Brickley

Newly crowned TCR Europe Series champion Jenson Brickley believes that he would not have been in a position to win the title in Barcelona without the use of team orders in the final race of the year.

Brickley started the reversed-grid second race from seventh on the grid and quickly moved up a position in the early going, but struggled to make further progress as title rival Teddy Clairet ran second.

Clairet had looked the more likely to capture the title with Brickley’s Monlau Motorsport team-mate Eric Gené unable to challenge in third.

But with ALM Motorsport’s Ruben Volt passing Clairet for second and Gené allowing Brickley past into fifth, the latter snuck the title from Clairet by just one point.

“First of all, I want to say thank you to Eric because without him, it wouldn’t have happened,” Brickley said post-race.

“Team orders came in and it was perfect. Obviously, the year hasn’t been perfect, we’ve had ups and downs but we’re here and to win TCR Europe on debut, it’s amazing.”

Like team-mate Gené, Brickley appeared to be struggling with his Cupra León Competición car in the middle of the race.

Despite finishing second in Friday’s opening race, Brickley admitted that he’d had difficulty getting to grips with the balance of his car all weekend.

“I was struggling from the middle to the end,” Brickley reflected.

“I don’t know if I told anyone in the interviews yesterday, but I was struggling quite badly with oversteer on entry and we thought we’d change a few things because it was going to be cooler, but then it just turned into understeeer.”

Brickley finished the year with 206 points, one ahead of Clairet, with Gené ending up third in the final standings with 194 points while Jimmy Clairet was fourth with 193.

In claming the drivers’ title, Monlau Motorsport also wrapped up the teams’ championship and rookie title with Gené.