Photo: TCR Spain

Felipe Fernández charges to Barcelona double

By

Felipe Fernández performed a strong recovery drive to the final race of the 2026 TCR Spain season finale at Barcelona.

Samuel Chaligne got a good start from the reversed grid pole position to take the lead while Demir Eröge stalled from the front row.

Carl Boardley climbed to second place, with Erik Zabala right behind in third.

Zabala overtook Boardley before the end of the first lap, as Sten-Dorian Piirimägi went past fellow Honda driver René Povlsen to take fourth place.

Newly crowned champion Viktor Andersson soon followed Piirimägi past Povlsen for fifth.

Chaligne went wide at Turn 1 on lap 2 and fell down to ninth position, with Zabala taking over the lead.

The Honda duo of Felipe and Rubén Fernández overtook Povlsen who continued to drop down to seventh place on lap three.

Andersson went past Boardley for third place at Turn 1 on lap five and continued to charge ahead, overtaking Piirimägi for second place a lap later.

Felipe Fernández overtook Boardley for fourth place and mayhem ensued on lap eight as Andersson attacked Zabala for the lead. The move enabled Felipe Fernández to get past both Zabala and Piirimägi for second place.

Rubén Fernández followed his brother’s steps on the following lap to take third position.

Andersson couldn’t relax at the front, as Felipe Fernández closed the gap to under three tenths with less than five minutes to go of the race. The Honda driver managed to snatch the lead on the penultimate lap.

Fernández claimed his second victory of the weekend at the chequered flag, just below a second ahead of Andersson while Rubén Fernández was a distant third, more than ten seconds adrift.

Zabala defended hard to finish in fourth position ahead of Piirimägi and Povlsen, with Victor Fernández in seventh place.

Boardley could only manage eighth position ahead of Chaligne and Eröge, who completed the top ten.

“It was a spectacular victory, I wasn’t clear that I could reach the top four, but it was a hard work little by little,” Felipe Fernández said after the race. “I want to thank everyone at RC2 for an incredible work.”

Andersson, who had already clinched the title after Race 1, finished the season on 284 points, 37 points ahead of Piirimägi and 54 over Zabala.