TCR Europe: Spanish shootout for Azcona and Girolami

The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya hosts the final two TCR Europe races of the 2021 season this weekend, with the Spanish track set to witness a thrilling finale to the fourteen-round championship. Only one of the TCR Europe titles has been settled and so, just as in the previous three seasons, the majority of the various championships will go down to the wire on the final weekend.
Unsurprisingly, most attention will focus on the battle for the Drivers’ title, with Mikel Azcona (Volcano Motorsport, CUPRA Leon Competición) and Franco Girolami (PSS Motorsport, Honda Civic Type R) going head-to-head for the crown. The pair are separated by 53 points – effectively 60, as Girolami has to drop his lowest score of 7 points – but 90 points are still on offer from Qualifying and the two races. Third-placed Tom Coronel (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS) is 127 points behind Azcona and so the title fight is very much a two-way affair, although Coronel could be beaten to third place by his compatriot Niels Langeveld (Sébastien Loeb Racing, Hyundai Elantra N) who is just 13 points behind.
In the Teams’ fight, Sébastien Loeb Racing are 83 points clear of Comtoyou Racing and so it will take a major upset to prevent the French team from winning the title with its four Hyundai Elantra N cars, including those of Langeveld and the reigning TCR Europe champion Mehdi Bennani.
The Rookie title has already been decided; 17-year old Isidro Callejas is 83 points ahead of his nearest rival Jáchym Galáš with a maximum of 50 points potentially on offer from the final two races. The other two battles are far from settled, however, with Viktor Davidovski and Martin Ryba separated by just 11 points in the Diamond class and the top three Junior drivers – Nicolas Baert, Sami Taoufik and Jack Young – within 25 points of each other.
Qualifying and both races will be streamed live at www.tcr-series.com; Qualifying, Saturday 10:40, Race 1, Saturday 15:40 and Race 2, Sunday 13:45 local times (CEST). 

Pictures: TCR Europe/@World