Comtoyou Racing’s Tom Coronel took a lights-to-flag in the sole TCR Europe race to take place at the Nürburgring this weekend, beating Target Competition’s Nicola Baldan away from the line.
Ahead of the race, the entire field knew it would be their only chance this weekend to race, with long fog delays on Saturday having severely curtailed the event timetable, resulting in not only the cancellation of the series’ qualifying session but also the reversed-grid second race.
As such, with the grid being formed from the combined practice times, Coronel would line up on pole position and know that he only had to contest one race on Sunday.
At the start, the Dutchman beat Italian Baldan away from the line and defended his lead into the first corner, as behind him Halder Motorsport’s Jack Young lost third to championship leader Franco Girolami.
As Young attempted to fight back, he ended up making contact with Felice Jelmini’s Hyundai and the resulting touch, albeit seemingly light, was enough to end the Honda driver’s race with steering damage.
After the first lap Coronel had already opened up a comfortable margin, and in the end the Audi driver would go on to win by over two seconds from Baldan.
The victory was Coronel’s third overall TCR Europe win, whilst second for Baldan was his first podium since the season opener in Portugal.
The podium was completed by Girolami, who seemed content to settle for third as the Argentine left the meeting with a points lead of 78 points with just two meetings left to go.
Aggressive Team Italia’s Pepe Oriola was fourth, the Hyundai driver having moved into the place on the opening lap with a good start from seventh on the grid, although he had to fend off an early challenge from Volcano Motorsport’s Isidro Callejas on the second and third tour, which resulted in contact on lap three seeing Callejas spin down the order.
Target Motorsport’s Josh Files was fifth after team-mate Felice Jelmini dropped behind him on the run to the chequered flag, even though Jelmini had held the place for almost the entire race.
Files himself had had to withstand fierce pressure from Janík Motorsport’s Jáchym Galáš, the two Hyundai drivers frequently making contact and swapping paint, before Files prevailed in front.
Jelmini took the finish in sixth ahead of Galáš in seventh, whilst Élite Motorsport’s Marco Butti had caught the scrapping Hyundai cars in his Audi, although was unable to capitalise and finished in eighth.
The top ten was completed by Sébastien Loeb Racing’s John Filippi and Volcano Motorsport’s Isidro Callejas. After the contact with compatriot Oriola on lap three, in which Callejas had seemingly moved over on Oriola exiting the hairpin, he had dropped to 14th before recovering only a handful of places later in the race.
Guest racers Patrick Sing and Jonas Karklys, regulars in ADAC TCR Germany, were 11th and 12th, even though the latter had to serve a drive-through penalty for a jump start.
As well as Young, there were retirements for Volcano Motorsport’s Klim Gavrilov, who suffered from broken suspension on the opening lap, and Michelle Halder, who pulled her Honda off after two laps with technical issues.
Giacomo Ghermandi, who had also had a drive-through for a false start, and Mat’o Homola were also non-finishers in the race.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 33 |  |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 16 | 25:38.335 | 1:35.558 | 1 | |
| 2 | 8 |  |
Nicola BALDAN | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 2.423 | 1:35.776 | 2 | |
| 3 | 72 |  |
Franco GIROLAMI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 16 | 12.137 | 1:36.012 | 4 | |
| 4 | 74 |  |
Pepe ORIOLA | Aggressive Team Italia Asd | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 15.501 | 1:36.158 | 7 | |
| 5 | 99 |  |
Josh FILES | Target Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 22.293 | 1:36.709 | 10 | |
| 6 | 44 | |
Felice JELMINI | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 22.815 | 1:36.518 | 6 | |
| 7 | 24 |  |
Jáchym GALÁŠ | Janík Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 23.362 | 1:36.379 | 5 | |
| 8 | 111 | |
Marco BUTTI | Élite Motorsport by Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 16 | 23.763 | 1:36.359 | 13 | |
| 9 | 27 |  |
John FILIPPI | Sébastien Loeb Racing – Bardahl Team | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 16 | 26.700 | 1:36.740 | 12 | |
| 10 | 26 | |
Isidro CALLEJAS | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 16 | 33.503 | 1:37.210 | 11 | |
| 11 | 34 |  |
Patrick SING | RaceSing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 16 | 37.672 | 1:37.132 | 17 | |
| 12 | 15 |  |
Jonas KARKLYS | NordPass | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 16 | 43.200 | 1:36.106 | 14 | |
| 13 | 16 |  |
Evgenii LEONOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 16 | 1:06.252 | 1:36.994 | 18 | |
| 14 | 110 |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 15 | + 1 LAP | 1:37.335 | 19 | |
| R | 70 |  |
Mat’o HOMOLA | Janík Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | DNF | 1:40.680 | 9 | |
| R | 3 | |
Giacomo GHERMANDI | Lema Racing | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 10 | DNF | 1:37.937 | 16 | |
| R | 53 | |
Michelle HALDER | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 2 | DNF | 1:41.271 | 15 | |
| R | 62 | |
Jack YOUNG | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 1 | DNF | N/A | 3 | |
| R | 14 | |
Klim GAVRILOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 1 | DNF | N/A | 8 |