The fourth race meeting of TCR Portugal took place in Spain, at Jerez de la Frontera; the event was also valid as sixth round of the TCR Trophy Europe.
Both races were won by guest international drivers: Pierre-Yves Corthals from TCR Benelux was victorious in Race 1 at the wheel of a DG Sport Compétition Opel Astra, while Antti Buri and his LMS Racing SEAT León dominated the second race.
Race 1 – Corthals managed to overtake Francisco Mora’s Veloso Motorsport SEAT León four laps before the end of the race, when his Portuguese rival was slowed down by a combination of brake problems and tyre-wear.
Mora had taken the lead starting from the pole position, while Corthals climbed to second on the opening lap, overtaking the SEAT León of Rafael Lobato.
In the second half of the race, Corthals was seriously threatening Mora’s leadership and eventually managed to overtake him on lap 9. Soon afterwards, Mora’s pace faded and he salvaged the second position beating Lobato by only six tenths of a second.
Race 2 - Buri took the lead at the start from pole position ahead of César Machado, while Francisco Mora’s Veloso Motorsport SEAT León stalled and the young Portuguese was forced to come back to the pits and retire.
Lap after lap, Buri consistently improved his leading margin. Behind him Machado tried to defend his second place from Frédéric Caprasse (DG Sport Compétition Opel Astra) and Francisco Abreu (Team Novadriver Volkswagen Golf).
On lap 8, Machado was given a drive-through for a grid infringement and dropped to seventh, which promoted Caprasse and Abreu to second and third respectively.
Positions froze in the last part of the race, as Buri cruised to a comfortable victory.
As far as the TCR Trophy Europe is concerned, Corthals and Caprasse were the best scorers of the event, ahead of Buri and the pairing of Abreu-Gião. This enabled Corthals to maintain the point leadership, while Caprasse and Buri moved up to second and third.
As for the TCR Portugal standings, the fight for the title is wide open. Francisco Carvalho-Nuno Batista are still in the lead, 11 points ahead of Mora. The pairing of Machado-Lobato is in third position, with a gap of 19 points, while José Rodrigues and Abreu-Manuel Gião are two and four points further adrift respectively.
The final round valid for the TCR Europe Trophy will be TCR Germany’s race meeting at Hockenheim on October 1 and 2, while the TCR Portugal’s last event will take place at Estoril on November 26 and 27.
