Michelle Halder and Alba Cano make a ladies 1-2 in Race 3

Michelle Halder won Race 3 of TCR Spain in Valencia, her second victory of the season, beating Alba Cano in an unprecedented 1-2 finish for lady drivers in TCR competition.
Halder started from the pole and rejected an attempt from Fernando Navarrete who was second on the grid. Their cars made contact while entering into Turn 1, which helped Mike Halder to move into second ahead of Navarrete. The German driver then kept the field behind while his sister was able to create a gap.
Mike Halder and Navarrete swapped positions a couple of times, while Alejandro Cutillas was following them in fourth position.
In lap 4, Mike Halder broke free and pulled away, while the battle continued for third with Alba Cano joining Navarrete and Cutillas. 
Later on, Navarrete pitted with a technical issue and rejoined one lap later, then in lap 9 Cano overtook Cutillas for P3 after their cars clashed. 
Unexpectedly, in lap 11 Mike Halder too was forced to make a brief pit stop for a technical issue and dropped from second to fifth.
During the last lap, Cano closed the gap to Michelle Halder but couldn’t get close enough to try on overtaking move and the German lady won by 2.5 seconds over the Spanish lady, with Cutillas completing the podium and Sergio López finishing a distant fourth after starting from the pit lane.
Despite his misadventure, Mike Halder has retained a solid 117-point lead over Cutillas with only one event left, at Barcelona on November 13/14.

Valencia – Race 3
1. Michelle Halder (Halder Motorsport, Honda Civic Type R FK7), 13 laps
2. Alba Cano (Monlau Competición, CUPRA Leon Competición), 2.597
3. Alejandro Cutillas (SMC Motorsport, Peugeot 308), 3.382
4. Sergio López (RC2 Junior Team, CUPRA Leon Competición), 18.539
5. Mike Halder (Halder Motorsport, Honda Civic Type R FK7), 1:36.927

Championship points – TCR Spain
1. Mk. Halder 472 pts; 2. A. Cutillas 355; 3. F. Navarrete 327 

Championship points – TCR Ibérico
1. Mk. Halder 93 pts; 2. A. Cutillas 68; 3. A. Cano 65 

Picture: RFEdeA