TCR cars were absolutely dominant in the 24H Silverstone, opening round of the 24H Touring Car Endurance Series.
Victory went to the Team Bleekemolen SEAT León shared by Sebastiaan Bleekemolen, Melvin de Groot, Rob Smith and Rene Steenmetz that last year had led the race for 19 hours before retiring with an engine failure. This time though, the Team Bleekemolen car stayed out of harm's way and took the chequered flag with 549 laps completed for a distance of 3239 kilometres. Consistency enabled the Pit Lane CompetizioniAudi RS3 LMS DSG of Alberto Vescovi, Roberto Ferri, Zach Arnold, Enrico Bettera and John Filippì to claim second place, five laps behind the winners. Ten further laps down, third position went to the Modena Motorsports SEAT León DSG driven by Marcel Tjia, Christian Chia, Michael Soeryadjaya, Benny Simonsen and Philippe Descombes.
TheRed Camel-Jordans.nl SEAT León DSG (Rik Breukers, Ivo Breukers, Sjaco Griffioen, Klaus Kresnik) led the race in the early stages, but retired with engine issues on Sunday morning. The pole setting Monlau Competición SEAT León DSG (Jurgen Smet, José Manuel Perez Aicart, Alba Cano Ramírez, Álvaro Bajo) lost its winning odds after a gearbox change on Saturday evening and finished in sixth place overall.
Thirteen TCR cars took the start out of a 30-car field and they eventually filled the top six positions in the overall classification. Two BMW M235i Racing Cup cars were classified in seventh and eight, the only non-TCR teams in the top ten.
