News Report

Dutch dunes await Civic Type R TCR racers

16 May 2019

WTCR Race of Netherlands

Circuit Zandvoort, Netherlands

WTCR 2019, Round 4

Honda Civic Type R TCR drivers Nestor Girolami and Esteban Guerrieri head to this weekend’s WTCR – FIA World Touring Car Championship Race of Netherlands aiming to solidify their position at the top of the standings.

A one-two finish in Slovakia a few days ago ensured that Bebu and Esteban are separated by just two points at the head of the race for the title while ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport hold the top spot in the Teams’ standings.

Bebu, who has three wins from the opening three rounds of the season to his name, has never raced at Zandvoort, but did gain experience of the iconic seaside during winter testing.

Esteban, by contrast, has raced at the newly-announced Dutch Grand Prix venue in single-seaters and in touring cars; the Argentinian finishing fourth on his first WTCR appearance there last year as Münnich led the standings for the first time.

After challenging weekends in Hungary and Slovakia, KCMG drivers Tiago Monteiro and Attila Tassi are itching to get back towards the front of the grid in the Dutch dunes.

Zandvoort was the scene of Tiago’s World Touring Car debut in 2007 and the Portuguese driver, who missed last year’s WTCR event through injury, is keen to get back among the points finishers after narrowly missing out in all three Slovakia races.

Attila, meanwhile, scored a double podium there last year as KCMG were TCR Europe winners on a weekend where the series supported WTCR.

Having amassed three points finishes in three rounds this year, the 19-year-old Hungarian has a strong record at the circuit with which to begin his weekend.

After a varied timetable in Slovakia, The Zandvoort round returns to a more regular schedule with two practice sessions on Friday, qualifying and one race on Saturday and then a second qualifying session plus two races on Sunday.

2019 WTCR Race of Slovakia

Honda Pro Racing / David Noels

Nestor Girolami ²⁹

“It’s been a wonderful start to the season. I had high expectations after testing, but I could never have imagined it would be this good. I know that as the championship leader, I am the one everybody wants to beat, so that’s why it’s important at Zandvoort to carry our good qualifying form into the weekend, start as far forward as possible and avoid the incidents that cost us some important points in Slovakia.”

ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport

Esteban Guerrieri ⁸⁶

“I had the best start possible to the season with a win from pole in Morocco, and since then, as a team, we’ve just executed our strategy very well in qualifying and the races and grown in confidence. The compensation-weight situation won’t be as bad for us here as it was in Slovakia, so we need to take the opportunity to score as many points as possible before our main rivals hit strong form. It’s far too early to think about the championship yet, but we do need to keep scoring well everywhere.”

ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport

Tiago Monteiro ¹⁸

“Zandvoort is one of the most important circuits in my career as it’s where I made my touring car debut 12 years ago, but while I did get a pole position there in TCR Benelux, I really haven’t raced there that often in a front-wheel drive machine. The Honda does have a strong record there, which is good news for us coming off the back of two weekends where we haven’t achieved what we wanted, but everybody’s working hard to make sure we’re back on form this time.”

KCMG

Attila Tassi ⁹

“Zandvoort is a fantastic circuit; one that I enjoy a lot and one where I went very well last year in the Civic Type R TCR in TCR Europe. Being here in a world-level series is a different thing altogether, but even though the results didn’t come in Slovakia, we’re not too far off being where we want to be. We’ve worked on our strategy for qualifying and I’m sure if we can just click everything together, we’ll be able to score some good results this weekend.”

KCMG