Victory for Jimmy Clairet makes the weekend a family affair

Following Teddy Clairet’s maiden TCR Europe victory in Race 1 at Le Castellet yesterday, his brother Jimmy repeated the feat in Race 2 to give Team Clairet Sport a perfect weekend at their home event of the series. 2018 champion Mikel Azcona had to settle for second place after fighting for the win for the entire ten-lap race while an audacious overtaking move helped Sami Taoufik finish third.
Just as in yesterday’s race, the start proved to be critical. Pole-sitter Viktor Davidovski and his PSS Racing teammate Franco Girolami, who had started from P2, were both beaten to Turn 1 by Azcona. Jimmy Clairet, however, dived past the trio going into Turn 2 to take the lead and from then on the Peugeot driver never looked back. Clairet and Azcona quickly began to pull away and would spend the rest of the race scrapping for the lead, with Clairet holding off the challenge to record his first TCR Europe win.
Further back, Lap 1 saw Jáchym Galáš outbrake himself going into the chicane on the Mistral straight and dropped behind the Audi of Klim Gavrilov, who had started from the back of the grid following an engine change. At the beginning of Lap 2, Teddy Clairet headed into the pits while the end of the same lap saw Niels Langeveld attacking Davidovski out of the final corner with the Hyundai overtaking the Honda on the run down to Turn 1.
The next few laps witnessed a string of passing moves. Along with Langeveld moving up to P3, Jack Young soon also passed Davidovski for P4 and no fewer than three Hyundai Elantra cars were ganging up on Girolami. The four ran in a train down the Mistral on Lap 4, with Taoufik picking the perfect line to pass three cars in a single manoeuvre around the outside going into Signes.
Contact between Langeveld and Young while scrapping for P3 then saw both cars forced to retire, with Young pulling off the track and Langeveld limping back to the pits. Several battles then emerged, with the fight for the lead continuing and Mehdi Bennani passing Felice Jelmini for P6 on Lap 7. Tom Coronel passed Mat’o Homola for ninth place on the penultimate lap and Taoufik denied Davidovski a podium finish when the Hyundai passed the Honda for P3.
Despite the close attention from Azcona for the entire race, Jimmy Clairet held the Spaniard at bay by 1.142 seconds. Third place for Taoufik meant the young Moroccan finally got his 2021 title bid started after a disappointing weekend in Slovakia. Davidovski finished fourth – his best result ever in the championship – ahead of his teammate Girolami; Bennani, Jelmini, Isidro Callejas, Coronel and Homola occupied the remainder of the top ten places.
In the standings, Azcona has built a healthy 51-point lead over Bennani, but he will be missing the next event at Circuit Zandvoort, on June 18/20, due to the clash with the PURE ETCR season opener at Vallelunga.

Circuit Paul Ricard – Race 2
1. Jimmy Clairet (Team Clairet Sport, Peugeot 308), 10 laps
2. Mikel Azcona (Volcano Motorsport, CUPRA Leon Competición), 1.142
3. Sami Taoufik (Sébastien Loeb Racing, Hyundai Elantra N), 9.359
4. Viktor Davidovski (PSS Racing, Honda Civic Type R FK7), 10.044
5. Franco Girolami (PSS Racing, Honda Civic Type R FK7), 11.250

Championship points
1. M. Azcona 143 pts; 2. M. Bennani 92; 3. J. Clairet 87 

Picture: TCR Europe