Victories for JK Vernay, Julien Briche at Spa's round of TCR Europe
Jean-Karl Vernay (Leopard Lukoil Team WRT, Audi RS3 LMS) and Julien Briche (JSB Competition, Peugeot 308 TCR) are the race winners in the third round of the TCR Europe Series at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. For each driver it was the first victory in the series.
Lights-to-flag win for JK Vernay
In the first race, on Saturday afternoon, Jean-Karl Vernay started from pole and converted his leading position into the lights-to-flag victory and his maiden win in TCR Europe Series. The Belgian Maxime Potty finished second in Comtoyou Racing’s Volkswagen Golf GTI, scoring his maiden podium in the series.
Mikel Azcona finished third in PCR Sport’s Cupra and took the lead in the championship, ahead of Dušan Borković, who finished fourth in Saturday’s race in Target Competition’s Hyundai i30 N TCR.
Jean-Karl Vernay has won the first race at Spa
Post-race penalty decided second race
In Sunday’s race, Danny Kroes started from pole on the top-ten reverse grid but he didn’t manage to convert it into good result. Kris Richard was initial winner in Target Competition’s Hyundai but the stewards of the meeting have inverted the first two positions after the race. Richard received one-second time penalty for the contact he had with Julien Briche at Les Combes during the penultimate lap, while they were fighting for the lead.
The Frenchman was trying to overtake Richard at the braking, using the outside line, but as the two cars collided he was forced to cut straight through the chicane, which helped the Swiss to maintain the lead and win with a margin of 0.7 seconds. The penalty gave Briche and the Peugeot 308 their first victory in TCR Europe. Maxime Potty scored one more podium by finishing third in the second race.
After three rounds and six races, Mikel Azcona is the championship leader with 95 points, eleven more than Dušan Borković. JK Vernay in third, far behind with 56 points.
Julien Briche inherited Race 2 victory after Kris Richard’s penalty
Photos: TCR Europe,
