TCR / 08 September 2025

Butti heads TCR Europe as Civic Type R TCR wins another title

Marco Butti grabbed the lead of the TCR Europe points table last weekend while Victor Fernandez secured the latest major title for the ultra-successful Honda Civic Type R at the Red Bull Ring.

Butti, a graduate of the JAS Motorsport Driver Development Programme last year, was in inspired form at the Austrian track. The Spa-Francorchamps race winner qualified third and ran strongly to finish there in a processional opener, just 2.8 seconds from victory.

His drive through the field on Sunday was even more impressive as he made his way from seventh on the partially-reversed grid to second by the chequered flag. This puts him top of the table in a 12-way title fight with one round to go.

In the Diamond Trophy, MM Motorsport's Giacomo Ghermandi marked his first TCR Europe appearance of 2025 with a category pole position, but after leading the entirety of Race One, he was overtaken out of the final corner by Victor Fernandez.

Fernandez stole the class win by just 0.037s from Ghermandi and in doing so the Auto Club RC2 Valles driver sealed the Diamond Trophy title; the third for the JAS Motorsport-built Civic of 2025 and the 116th in total.

ALM Motorsport's Rene Kircher marked his series debut - and his first race appearance for 11 months - with fifth place in Race Two while team-mate Ruben Volt had to start both races from the back row after a driveshaft issue in qualifying.

He climbed to ninth in Race Two, one spot behind RC2 Auto Club Valles driver Felipe Fernandez, who had been eliminated from Race One in a red flag-inducing multi-car incident that put Jacopo Cimenes' MM car out of the entire event.