Volt wins Barcelona Race 1, as Brickley takes the points lead
Ruben Volt converted the pole position into his second win of the season in TCR Europe’s penultimate race at Barcelona that started with a five-car pile-up. Behind the Estonian youngster, Jenson Brickley finished second and thanks to incidents and penalties jumped on top of the standings, five points clear of Teddy Clairet and six of his own teammate Eric Gené.
The other drivers who remain in contention before tomorrow’s last race are Jimmy Clairet and Marco Butti, with gaps of 15 and 18 points, with 30 still on offer.
In a qualifying that had seen several drivers in troubles with track limits, Volt had won the pole, five tenths ahead of Felipe Fernández, with Jacopo Cimenes and Brickley filling the second row. Joint points-leaders Gené and Butti had qualified in fifth and 16th, as the Italian struggled with technical issues. The Clairet brothers were 6th (Jimmy) and 9th (Teddy).
Volt made a good start, leading from Gené who darted from P3, Fernández and Brickley, but the safety car was deployed following a pile-up on the main straight. Cimenes’ Honda stood still and was collected by the other Civic of Victor Fernández who hit Sam Laidlaw’s CUPRA and sent it into Steven Laidlaw’s, while Raphaël Fournier’s Hyundai crashed into the heap.
After one lap through the pit lane, the race was red-flagged to recover the five wrecked cars. Restart was given behind the safety car, with Volt pulling away while there were fights behind. In lap 6, Fernández attacked Gené, they made contact and the Spaniard dropped to 14th, while Brickley and the Clairet brothers moved up to second, third and fourth ahead of Fernández.
The safety car was deployed again in lap 12, after Filippo Barberi had beached his Audi on the gravel, and led the field for the last lap, with Volt the winner from Brickley, Jimmy and Teddy Clairet. Fernández was given two penalties for the incident with Gené and track limits dropping to 17th. Other penalties were handed to Nicola Baldan, Junui Park, Max Hart, Julien Briché and Butti, which promoted Gené from 14th to 9th.
Race 2 will start Saturday at 10:00 CEST, with Junesung Park and Teddy Clairet on the front row of the reversed grid; Jimmy Clairet, Gené and Brickley will start from P5, 6 and 7. Live streaming HERE.
Race 1
- Ruben Volt (ALM Motorsport, Honda Civic Type R FL5), 13 laps
- Jenson Brickley (Monlau Motorsport, CUPRA Leon VZ), 0.767
- Jimmy Clairet (Team Clairet Sport, Audi RS 3 LMS), 1.643
Championship points
- J. Brickley, 188 pts; 2. T. Clairet, 183; 3. E. Gené, 182
Picture: TCR Europe
