Oriola just pips Briché in the final sprint for Monza’s Race 2

Pepe Oriola delivered an astonishing performance to claim his maiden TCR Europe win. The Spaniard made a perfect start and took the lead during the first lap, then put in a great defensive drive to keep yesterday’s winner Julien Briché at bay until the end, when he took the chequered flag with a slim margin of one tenth of a second.
Mat’o Homola completed the podium ahead of Nicolas Baert. With Daniel Lloyd and Mike Halder – first and second in the points – both forced to retire, Baert advanced to second in the standings and reduced the gap from Lloyd to 32 points.   
Jean-Laurent Navarro started from the back of the grid following an engine change; the engine was also changed on Homola’s car, but the Stewards considered this as a case of force majeure, following the crash the Slovak had in Race 1, and so he retained the fifth position on the grid. As for Andreas Bäckman, he elected to skip the race again not to worsen the injury to his left hand.
At the start, Halder sprinted to the lead ahead of pole sitter John Filippi, but Oriola passed them both during the opening lap and tried to run away. Behind him there was a furious battle that involved Halder, Filippi Baert, Homola, the Clairet brothers, Briché, Mehdi Bennani and Lloyd. Soon Halder dropped down and eventually retired with a broken splitter, immediately afterwards Lloyd stopped on the track with a flat tyre, consequence of a clash with Bennani.
Another contact involved Bennani and Homola, with the latter going straight at the Roggia chicane; in the meantime, Briché passed his rivals one by one, moved into second and began to nibble at Oriola’s advantage. The pace of the Audi cars faded towards the end of the race and so Baert lost fourth place to Jimmy Clairet and Bennani dropped to eighth behind Teddy Clairet and Felice Jelmini.
Despite Briché’s efforts, Oriola was able not to open the lesser gap and so beat the Frenchman to the finishing line by inches.  
After the race, Filippi was given a three-second penalty and dropped from eighth to ninth behind Bennani.
The TCR Europe will resume in two weeks, in Spain at Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya.

Race 2 results
1. Pepe Oriola (Brutal Fish Racing, Honda Civic Type R), 10 laps
2. Julien Briché (JSB Compétition, Peugeot 308), 0.152
3. Mat’o Homola (BRC Racing Team, Hyundai i30 N), 4.546
4. Jimmy Clairet (Team Clairet Sport, Peugeot 308), 5.208
5. Nicolas Baert (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 6.147

Championship points
1. Daniel Lloyd 173 pts; 2. Nicolas Baert 141; 3. Mehdi Bennani 125

Picture: TCR Europe