TCR / 09 May 2022
Five sensational wins on golden weekend for Civic Type R TCR
Honda Civic Type R TCR drivers produced five magnificent wins in three different touring car series in Europe during the weekend, including a dominant performance at the opening round of the WTCR - FIA World Touring Car Cup.
A magnificent weekend by JAS customer racing teams included three pole positions out of three, 10 outright podium finishes plus four more class wins in addition to the overall successes.
FIA WTCR
Nestor Girolami and Esteban Guerrieri swept all before them as the series opened at the Pau street circuit in France; the ALL-INKL.COM Munnich Motorsport duo locking out the front row in qualifying and then taking a one-two finish in their JAS Motorsport-built Civics.
With the pair seventh and fifth in Race Two from the partially-reversed grid, Girolami and Guerrieri head the Drivers' standings with Munnich at the head of the Teams' title race with almost twice the number of points of their nearest rival.
Tiago Monteiro scored Liqui Moly Team Engstler';s best result of its debut weekend as a Honda WTCR team with 10th in Race Two. Attila Tassi started second, but first-lap contact relegated him to 13th by the flag.
TCR Denmark
Kasper H Jensen and Gustav Birch ensured a triple win for GMB Motorsport on their first outing with the Civic Type R TCR at Padborg Park.
Jensen, who is aiming for a third straight title, qualified on pole position and dominated the opening race as TPR Motorsport's Mike Halder made it a Honda one-two.
Birch, who lost a certain second-place finish in the opener when his car slowed on the last lap, won Race Two while Halder stormed to victory in the finale, only to be penalised 20 seconds when he was adjudged to have overtaken Jensen under waved yellow flags - a decision the TPR team has protested.
Jensen, Birch and Halder hold the top three positions in the Drivers' Standings while GMB head the Teams' points from TPR.
Halder';s TPR team-mate Anton Bergstrom was seventh in Race Three with Madbull Racing's Kim Lund Johansen and Budweg Racing's Carsten Lorenzen scoring best finishes of fourth and eighth in the Trophy class.
TCR Italy
Carlo Tamburini claimed his maiden series win at Imola, the MM Motorsport driver snatching victory two corners from home when JAS Development Driver Ruben Volt - who led virtually the whole race - was punted into the gravel by a reckless rival.
While the 16-year-old Estonian - who became the series’ youngest-ever polesitter 24 hours earlier - caught the lurid slide and finished third - it was Tamburini who was celebrating most.
Volt’s ALM Honda Racing team-mates Antti Rammo and Mattias Vahtel - the latter another JAS Development Driver - finished in fourth and sixth spots in Race One; a career-best for Rammo and a season’s best for Vahtel, who also set the fastest lap in Race Two.
Volt has taken over the lead of the under-25s title race while Tamburini - who was victorious in the category in Race One - was also the rookie class winner on both days to head the points.
Tamburini’s team-mate Manuel Bissa was a brilliant third in Race Two while MM’s JAS Development Driver - Marco Iannotta - suffered issues in qualifying and Race One, but recovered from 27th to 16th in Race Two.
