KCMG’s Attila Tassi scored his first victory of the season in TCR Europe in the second race at Assen, ahead of PCR Sport’s Mikel Azcona and Target Competition’s Dušan Borković.
Tassi made a lightning getaway at the start of the race, moving his Honda from fifth on the grid into second by the first sequence of corners. The young Hungarian then passed the CUPRA of Azcona for the lead around Turns 10 and 11, and he never looked back to take a convincing victory ahead of the Spaniard.
By taking second, Azcona keeps his title battle alive and he leaves The Netherlands just two points away from Borković at the top of the table, having slightly closed the gap.
Borković claimed the final podium position after a duel with Stian Paulsen’s CUPRA late in the race, trying several times to pass the Norwegian at the Turn 6 chicane to no avail.
With Paulsen acting as the cork in the bottle, Borković made his move at turn 5 on lap 11 when Paulsen ran too deep into the corner, taking third and holding on to the chequered flag, despite damage to his front-right wing after clipping a tyre stack at the final chicane.
Fourth went to Autodis Racing’s Stefano Comini, who claimed the position on the final lap of the race after also making a move on Paulsen at Turn 5.
Paulsen held on to finish in fifth, clearly struggling with his tyres, ahead of Target Competition’s Kris Richard in sixth. The Hyundai driver benefitted from a mistake by Comtoyou Racing’s Maxime Potty at Turn 5 on the final lap, which cost Potty three places, allowing Swiss racer Richard through.
Leopard Lukoil’s Jean-Karl Vernay was seventh in his Audi, ahead of Potty in eighth, who managed to claim back the position from the Honda of Jens Reno Møller further around the final lap after initially losing out.
Møller and Target Competition’s Reece Barr completed the top ten, the latter taking home a solitary point from a weekend which promised much more.
Julien Briché brought his Peugeot 308 TCR home in 11th position, the Frenchman having dropped to tenth on the opening lap, despite starting on the front row of the grid.
Several drivers, including Paulsen and Richard, remain under investigation for repeated exceedances of track limits during the race and the result remains provisional.
After the highs of a first victory on Saturday, disaster struck for M1RA’s Dániel Nagy after just one lap, with a suspected engine issue stopping the Hyundai driver at the first corner and bringing about a two-lap safety car intervention whilst his car was cleared.
Josh Files also retired from the race due to damage from a tyre stack on the opening lap, leaving the Brit with just one point from the weekend’s two races, together with the five points he took in qualifying.
The only action taken after the race was to disqualify Francisco Abreu from the results due to a technical infringement – the Peugeot driver had been classified in 14th position.
The TCR Europe season resume at Monza in just over a month’s time on the 21 – 23 September.
Amended race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 9 | Attila TASSI |  |
Hell Energy Racing with KCMG | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 13 | 13 LAPS | 1:45.592 | 5 |
| 2 | 25 | Mikel AZCONA |  |
PCR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 13 | 1.053 | 1:46.105 | 3 |
| 3 | 62 | Dušan BORKOVIĆ |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 13 | 6.867 | 1:45.911 | 4 |
| 4 | 42 | Stefano COMINI |  |
Autodis Racing by THX | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 13 | 12.093 | 1:47.001 | 11 |
| 5 | 34 | Stian PAULSEN |  |
Stian Paulsen Racing | CUPRA TCR | 13 | 13.444 | 1:46.129 | 1 |
| 6 | 94 | Kris RICHARD | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 13 | 13.787 | 1:46.969 | 6 |
| 7 | 69 | Jean-Karl VERNAY |  |
Leopard Lukoil Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 13 | 13.977 | 1:47.069 | 9 |
| 8 | 88 | Maxime POTTY |  |
Comtoyou Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 13 | 15.267 | 1:46.547 | 8 |
| 9 | 11 | Jens Reno MØLLER |  |
Reno Racing | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 13 | 15.421 | 1:46.895 | 15 |
| 10 | 8 | Reece BARR |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 13 | 16.094 | 1:47.262 | 14 |
| 11 | 4 | Julien BRICHÉ | |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 13 | 16.550 | 1:47.306 | 2 |
| 12 | 15 | Peter TERTING |  |
Autodis Racing by Piro Sports | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 13 | 17.076 | 1:47.651 | 16 |
| 13 | 14 | Loris CENCETTI |  |
Autodis Racing by THX | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 13 | 20.951 | 1:47.736 | 13 |
| DQ | 23 | Francisco ABREU |  |
Sports & You | Peugeot 308 TCR | 13 | 22.465 | 1:47.843 | 18 |
| 14 | 10 | Viktor DAVIDOVSKY |  |
PSS Racing Team | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 13 | 24.724 | 1:48.253 | 22 |
| 15 | 35 | Munkong SATHIENTHIRAKUL |  |
Monlau Competición | CUPRA TCR | 13 | 25.711 | 1:47.916 | 19 |
| 16 | 63 | Giovanni ALTOÈ |  |
Pit Lane Competizioni | Audi RS3 LMS TCR DSG | 13 | 34.553 | 1:48.996 | 20 |
| 17 | 21 | Marie BAUS-COPPENS | |
JSB Compétition | CUPRA TCR DSG | 13 | 36.951 | 1:48.909 | 21 |
| R | 38 | Danny KROES |  |
PCR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 8 | DNF | 1:48.276 | 12 |
| R | 999 | Dániel NAGY | |
M1RA | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 2 | DNF | 1:47.258 | 7 |
| R | 7 | Igor STEFANOVSKI | |
Stefanovski Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 1 | DNF | 2:07.222 | 17 |
| R | 99 | Josh FILES |  |
Hell Energy Racing with KCMG | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 1 | DNF | 4:24.559 | 10 |