Nicolas Taylor extends points lead with Race 2 win at Paul Ricard

Nicolas Taylor won the second and final TCR Europe race of the weekend from second on the reversed grid at Paul Ricard in France, despite a late challenge by Mikhail Simonov.

BRC Racing Hyundai driver Gabriele Covini started from pole position but was quickly swamped by the field, dropping down to fourth by the end of the first lap and continued to drop down to finish the race in seventh place.

Instead it was Taylor (Audi) who made the best start from second place to claim the lead ahead of Cupra drivers Victor Weyrich and Simonov who started third and fourth respectively.

Junesung Park (Hyundai) was forced to pit at the end of the first lap with front-end damage and a puncture.

Disaster also struck the Monlau Motorsport duo of Viktor Andersson and Marco Butti, with the Swede dropping down the order after a technical issue on the opening laps and was then handed a ten-second penalty for jumping the start.

Team-mate Butti pitted to retire due to a technical issue on lap two while Andersson finished 15th.

Herrero Motorsport driver Weyrich piled the pressure on Taylor for the lead in the early stages of the race and managed to get past on lap four as Taylor made a mistake and went wide.

But the joy only lasted until lap seven for Weyrich who was forced to stop by the side of the track due to a technical issue, handing the lead back to Taylor.

Taylor’s PMA Motorsport team-mate Nicola Baldan found himself in a battle with Simonov for second place. But the Italian driver was handed a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits at Turn 2.

While Baldan’s attack on Simonov faded towards the end of the race, Taylor instead found himself under pressure from the Cupra driver during the final couple of laps.

Simonov tried an attack on the outside of Taylor heading into the final corner of the last lap. But it was not enough and Taylor managed to keep ahead to win the race by just 0.284 seconds over the Cupra driver.

Baldan crossed the line in third place with a puncture and dropped further to fourth due to his penalty, elevating Hyundai driver Junui Park to the final podium position.

ALM Motorsport driver Ruben Volt was a distant fifth ahead of Argentinian Honda driver Tiago Pernía who came out on top from a tough fight with Covini.

Danish Honda driver Michael Markussen rounded off the top eight.

Former points leader Mike Halder dropped from sixth to 13th on the final lap after suffering a puncture and was then collected by Santiago Concepcion who stopped after the finishing line with major front-end damage to his Audi.

Taylor leads the championship by a margin of 20 points over team-mate Baldan while Halder has dropped to third, 32 points from the lead.

The next TCR Europe race takes place at the Hungaroring on July 4-5.