The infamous street circuit of Vila Real hosted the third race meeting of the TCR Ibérico. Francisco Mora (Veloso Motorsport SEAT León) and Francisco Abreu (Team Novadriver Volkswagen Golf) claimed one win apiece.
Mora maintained the leadership in the standings, with a margin of 19 points ahead of Abreu; the pairing of Rafael Lobato and Patrick Cunha (Veloso Motorsport Audi RS3 LMS) slipped to third place, six points behind Abreu.
The first race was disrupted by three safety car interventions, one after a collision between José Pedro Faria’s KIA and Edgar Florindo’s SEAT, the second when a TCR2 car stopped on the track and then when João Carvalho’s SEAT crashed in the final turn.
Despite this, pole sitter Francisco Mora (SEAT) and Rafael Lobato (Audi) had a close fight for victory; eventually Mora won by a slim 2-tenths margin, while Francisco Abreu came a close third in his Volkswagen Golf.
In the second race, Abreu started from the pole and took an authoritative lights-to-flag victory, with a 15-second margin ahead of Mora. Patrick Cunha (Lobato’s co-driver) won the battle for third, beating César Machado, Carvalho and Gustavo Moura.
The next and final event will be at Barcelona, Spain, on September 16th and 17th.
