Jack Young endured a frustrating end to the TCR Europe season in Barcelona, after the Brutal Fish Racing driver picked up a drive-through penalty whilst running in second in the season finale.
The final reverse-grid race of the year saw the Northern Irishman start from third on the grid, and he jumped ahead of team-mate Isidro Callejas at the start of the race with a pass around the outside into the first corner.
Young then ran in second for much of the race, unable to challenge eventual winner Kilm Gavrilov for the lead but keeping within two seconds.
The 20-year-old, whose birthday was also on Sunday, was then hit with a drive-through penalty for exceeding track limits at the Turn 15 final chicane, meaning he dropped out of the top ten.
Young eventually took the chequered flag down in 15th, although he would later gain places to 12th after several drivers, including his team-mate, were penalised.
Young thus ended his season with disappointment, but accepted the penalt and with Callejas’ penalty, he ended the year tenth overall in the drivers’ championship, having claimed three outright podiums in 2021.
“I’m really disappointed, for the team as well, but it is what it is,” said Young to TouringCars.Net. “For me, I feel that you don’t really gain anything by going an inch off the track, but I suppose rules are rules and this just what I have to swallow.
“Even if you go off at Turn 15 you lose time, you don’t gain time. There’s really no point in having it there, but it is what it is.
“In qualifying yesterday our fastest time was taken off us because of track limits as well. They don’t use track limits in free practice which I don’t understand, because then no one knows how to get used to it.”
Young was pleased with his pace in the final race, having finished Saturday’s opening race in eighth after struggling a bit with the 60 kg of compensation weight he had to carry in Catalunya.
“We were pulling away from the rest of the pack for the whole race and that’s really good, it just proves the pace is there. We were just unlucky this weekend to be honest. We’ll try and improve from this.”
Despite leapfrogging his team-mate in the standings after the final race, Young insisted that he wasn’t battling with the young Spaniard to end the year as the best ranked driver in the team.
“Isidro is young and fast, so I always knew it was going to be tough. For me, I’m not fighting for positions with my team-mate, I’m trying to work together with him for us to improve each other.
“We’ve been doing that all year, and I think we’ve carried each other a long way.
“It would be good to work with him next year, but we’ll see what happens.”