Pauwels wins TCR Europe's penultimate race to close on Coronel
Kobe Pauwels won the penultimate race of TCR Europe at Barcelona to close the gap on his teammate and standings’ leader Tom Coronel to just eight points. The only other driver still mathematically able to win the title, John Filippi, finished third, but he now lies 35 points behind Coronel when 40 are still at stake.
Pauwels made a better start from second on the grid and passed pole-sitter Coronel; Filippi was right behind the pair with Lewis Brown and Nicola Baldan fourth and fifth. Pepe Oriola had to take to the run-off area through Turn 1 but had made up two places to lie in eighth overall after starting from tenth. Ruben Volt had started 13th and last following an engine change, but he quickly recovered. On Lap 2, Baldan was attacking Brown for P4, and he was soon able to pass the English driver, while Volt overtook Oriola for seventh, then made a passing move on Daniel Tkachenko for sixth.
By Lap 9, Volt had closed in on Brown but he punted the Audi into a spin while attempting to pass. Brown rejoined in P12, and Volt would later receive a thirty second penalty, which eventually dropped him from fifth to last.
Pauwels’ lead over Coronel had been around eight-tenths for much of the race and that was the margin that separated the pair as they took the chequered flag; Filippi was third, while Baldan finished fourth and Viktor Andersson was elevated to fifth thanks to Volt’s penalty.
The last race will start tomorrow at 12:15 CEST, with live streaming on tcr-series.tv.
Barcelona – Race 1
1. Kobe Pauwels (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 12 laps
2. Tom Coronel (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 0.886
3. John Filippi (Comtoyou, Audi RS 3 LMS), 1.479
Championship points
1. T. Coronel, 441 pts; 2. K. Pauwels, 433; 3. J. Filippi, 406
Picture: TCR Europe
