Butti and Gené are equal on points on top of TCR Europe
Marco Butti and Eric Gené are equal on points on top of TCR Europe’s standing after the series’ penultimate event at the Red Bull Ring, where the young Spaniard took his maiden win in Race 1 and was later given a ten-second penalty for contact with Jimmy Clairet in Race 2.
Gené was set to take a 17-point lead before the season finale at his home racetrack, Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, on September 25/27. However, after the stewards’ decision dropped him from fourth to 13th, the Monlau Motorsport driver has been joined on 170 points by Butti, who finished third and second in the Austrian races.
Teddy Clairet, who had a 14-point lead, is now third in the standings, seven points behind the leaders, with Race 2 winner Jenson Brickley and Jimmy Clairet also in close contention, a further four and 14 points behind.
In the closest season of the series so far, mathematically, the top twelve drivers in the championship head to Barcelona in contention for the drivers’ title.
Race 1 – Gené had claimed his maiden pole beating Nicolas Taylor by 56 thousandths, while Butti stole P3 from Nicola Baldan on his last lap; points leader Teddy Clairet missed the cut for Q2 and sat 16th on the grid. Gené led at the start ahead of Taylor, Butti and Baldan, while a fast-starting René Kircher climbed to fifth, passing Jacopo Cimenes. Kircher then clashed with Baldan into T3 just before a multi-car pile-up resulted in the race being halted by the red flag. The Honda of Cimenes and the CUPRA of Brickley came together; Cimenes spun into Junui Park’s Hyundai, and they were collected by Felipe Fernández, Filippo Barberi and Sandro Pelatti. All five cars were badly damaged and couldn’t continue.
When the race restarted behind the safety car, Gené controlled the pace, though he was briefly placed under pressure from Taylor, before the Canadian made an error in lap 9. Gené went on to score his maiden win in the European series and Taylor held on to the second place also claiming his first podium ahead of Butti. Baldan had an uneventful run to fourth, while penalties demoted Kircher from fifth to sixth for his collision with Baldan and Brickley from sixth to 11th for causing the incident in lap 1; Teddy Clairet was classified 12th.
Race 2 – Jimmy Clairet and Max Hart started from the front row of the reversed grid. Clairet held on to the lead into T1 ahead of Hart. Brickley managed to pass Hart for second at T2, while Gené overtook Kircher for fifth. The race then became very frenetic, with Viktor Andersson, Junesung Park, and Raphaël Fournier in a tight battle.
Brickley overtook Clairet for the lead and Hart lost third place to Butti. Then the safety car was deployed after a collision between Park and Andersson at T3. Brickley controlled the race from the restart, while Butti was putting Clairet under pressure and Hart lost fourth to Gené on lap 14. Butti completed his pass on Clairet with two laps to go but couldn’t catch Brickley who grabbed his first win since the season opener at Portimão. There was one final drama in the last lap, as contact between Jimmy Clairet and Gené at the final corner put Clairet out of the race and allowed Hart back into third. Gené crossed the line fourth but was later handed a penalty for the incident and dropped to 13th.
Race 1
- Eric Gené (Monlau Motorsport, CUPRA Leon VZ), 16 laps
- Nicolas Taylor (PMA Motorsport, Audi RS 3 LMS), 1.643
- Marco Butti (MM Motorsport, Honda Civic Type R FL5), 2.834
Race 2
- Jenson Brickley (Monlau Motorsport, CUPRA Leon VZ), 16 laps
- Marco Butti (MM Motorsport, Honda Civic Type R FL5), 1.632
- Max Hart (Target Competition, Hyundai Elantra N), 3.519
Championship points
- M. Butti, 170 pts; 2. E. Gené, 170; 3. T. Clairet, 163
Picture: TCR Europe
