1-2 for Lynk & Co in TCR World Tour and Coronel wins in TCR Europe

Santiago Urrutia and Thed Björk gave Cyan Racing Lynk & Co a 1-2 finish in an incident-packed Race 2 at Portimão, with the Audi RS 3 LMS of Frédéric Vervisch completing the podium positions for the Kumho TCR World Tour and Tom Coronel taking maximum points in TCR Europe by finishing fifth overall.

Urrutia made a good start from the pole with Björk up to P2 as the field streamed through Turn 1. At the exit to Turn 3, the Honda Civic of Néstor Girolami made contact with Kobe Pauwels’ Audi, which forced the Belgian teenager to run wide at Turn 4. As he rejoined, his car made heavy contact with the Hyundai Elantra N of Dušan Borković and Pauwels was forced to pull up on track. The incident meant the safety car was deployed, while both Girolami and Borković limped back to the pits. Girolami was soon back out on track, but Borković was forced to retire. The safety car circulated for four laps and racing resumed at the start of Lap 6. Girolami, however, didn’t even reach the start line as his front-right wheel collapsed, leaving the Honda stranded at the exit of Turn 15 and so the safety car was called into action once again. Another three laps were completed behind the safety car and racing resumed on Lap 9.

There was a three-way scrap between Yann Ehrlacher, Rob Huff and Ma Qing Hua seeing Huff and Ehrlacher pass Ma for P6 and P7. On Lap 11, John Filippi passed Felipe Fernández for P10 and, more importantly for P2 in TCR Europe. On Lap 11, Vervisch finally managed to get past Coronel to reclaim third place, while Mikel Azcona then also passed Coronel for P4.

On Lap 12, Viktor Davidovski succeeded in passing Felipe Fernández for P3 in TCR Europe, but Fernández then missed his braking point for Turn 5 and made contact with the rear of Davidovski’s car, causing him to half-spin. As a result of the incident, Rubén Fernandez passed his brother to move into P3 of TCR Europe and Felipe was later given a ten-second penalty. On the penultimate lap, Norbert Michelisz passed Ma Qing Hua for P8.

Urrutia was untroubled at the head of the field and scored a lights-to-flag victory ahead of Björk, with Vervisch finishing third ahead of Azcona. In TCR Europe, Tom Coronel took the win, with Filippi finishing second and Rubén Fernández third ahead of Ben Bargwanna who won the Rookie race ahead of Isaac Smith.

Race 1 winner Michelisz retained the lead in the TCR World Tour standings, two points clear of Azcona, with Vervisch third a further seven points adrift; in TCR Europe, Filippi and Coronel leave Portimão on equal points, with Filippi ahead thanks to one first and one second in the two races.

TCR Europe and Kumho TCR World Tour will race together at Spa-Francorchamps on May 26/28, but the European championship will visit Pau for Rounds 3 and 4 on May 12/14.

Urrutia said: “I’m really happy for Cyan Racing and Lynk & Co – it’s the first weekend that we’ve done with the new TCR model and so my congratulations to everyone here in Portimão, in China, in Sweden and everyone involved in this project. It was a difficult race for sure; when you come with a new car, you always need to do something different and learn the new car but to get the win today was a big push for the team. Now we focus on the next one!”

Portimão – Race 2 overall

1. Santiago Urrutia (Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03 FL), 14 laps

2. Thed Björk (Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03 FL), 0.461

3. Frédéric Vervisch (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 1.046

Portimão – Race 2 TCR Europe

1. Tom Coronel (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 14 laps

2. John Filippi (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 3.396

3. Rubén Fernández (RC2 Racing Team, Audi RS 3 LMS), 9.276

Championship points – TCR World Tour

1. N. Michelisz, 57 pts; 2. M. Azcona, 55; 3. F. Vervisch 48 

Championship points – TCR Europe

1. J. Filippi, 45 pts; 2. T. Coronel, 80; 3. I. Smith, 45  

Picture: WSC Group