Race Report

Girolami denied podium after determined drive in Hungary

Münnich Motorsport

22 Aug 2021

WTCR Race of Hungary

Hungaroring, Hungary

WTCR 2021, Round 4

Nestor Girolami was denied a second podium of the WTCR – FIA World Touring Car Cup season after finishing second on the road in Race Two at the Hungaroring.

The Argentinian, who a day earlier qualified his ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Honda Civic Type R TCR a superb fourth, was promoted to third before the start as the polesitter was unable to take up their grid slot. He then raced into second, despite slight contact with another car at Turn 1, with a strong launch from row two.

‘Bebu’ faced pressure thereafter from faster cars behind, but an inch-perfect drive meant he was able to keep them at bay for the duration of the 15-lap race.

Unfortunately, he received a five-second post-race penalty for that contact at the first corner, which demoted him to fifth in the final classification.

That result, coupled with a ninth-place finish in Race One, nevertheless elevated him back into the top 10 in the WTCR Drivers’ championship at the conclusion of the first half of the season.

Nestor sits one place behind his team-mate Esteban Guerrieri in the points, with the second ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Civic Type R TCR enjoying a productive raceday by twice advancing from 12th on the grid to finish eighth.

Esteban battled some balance issues in Race One, with he and the team improving that feeling in time for Race Two, but on both occasions felt able to maintain position without issue after two racey starts.

On the ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport side of the garage, Tiago Monteiro and home hero Attila Tassi both achieved best finishes of 10th.

Despite being hamstrung by his qualifying position of 13th, having missed the cut for Q2 by three-hundredths of a second, Tiago was again happy with the performance of his Civic Type R TCR and made the top 10 in Race One despite a hit from a competitor at Turn 3 that cost him positions.

Attila, who finished Race One in 13th, positioned his car well at the start of the finale to advance to 10th and held the position from there to the finish as he headed Tiago over the line.

Having reached the halfway point of the season, there is now another break of seven weeks before the next round of the revised 2021 schedule, with a maiden visit to Most in Czechia on the 9/10 October weekend.

2021 WTCR Race of Hungary

Honda Pro Racing / David Noels

Nestor Girolami ²⁹

"I'm really disappointed to lose this podium position, particularly after such a hard-fought drive in Race Two. I had a really good launch and managed to get into second; I actually started better than the leader but I decided to stay behind and changed the line minimally under braking, as I was following the leader and was close to him, but I also knew that the outside line rarely works because you get a lot of wheelspin on the exit. There was unfortunately this small contact with another car but for me it was just an unlucky touch. Despite this frustration, I'm really proud of the job myself and ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport did this weekend, especially the qualifying performance and how we managed the 60kg of compensation weight today, which was a much harder task than in qualifying."

ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport

Esteban Guerrieri ⁸⁶

"It wasn't the best weekend in terms of pace, but I would say considering the compromised starting position we had for both races we managed quite a positive Sunday to go from 12th on the grid twice and secure two eighth-place finishes. Getting there at the start was important and then being able to maintain position was OK both times, even though in Race One we were quite far from having a balance in the car that was good to drive with. In Race Two we improved it a bit and managed to maintain a good pace until the finish to score some good points, which was our target this weekend."

ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport

Tiago Monteiro ¹⁸

"We anticipated that it was going to be a hard weekend, so performance-wise I think we actually exceeded expectations a bit even though we had such a heavy car. Qualifying was very tight and unfortunately that result affected the weekend a little bit. In Race One I was pushed out by a competitor and lost a few positions, then I spent the whole race with my team-mates. And in Race Two I had another good start, but I was on the outside of the first corner - I didn't have a lot of choice with positioning - and contact meant I lost positions again. There's still a long way to go in the championship and we're not giving up, so we'll try to use the long break to prepare for a strong last part of the season."

ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport

Attila Tassi ⁹

"It was a tough weekend, made more difficult by qualifying, but today the goal was to collect as many points as possible. I think I maximised what we were capable of from my starting positions. Race One was difficult and I didn't position the car too well into the first corner, and spent a lot of the race fighting, but it was good to bring some points home. I had a better start in Race Two and a good position at Turn 1, which meant I gained a few places, before settling into 10th. Even though there wasn't much going on it was really tricky with the compensation weight we were carrying; this situation should be a little different at the next race."

ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport

Dominik Greiner

Team Manager

"It's tough to see this penalty for Nestor after the race, as a podium is the reward he and the crew deserved after the work they have done to fine-tune the package this weekend. Despite this, it was still positive to see that performance extracted from the car, and for all four drivers to score points in both races - especially getting three cars into the top 10 twice. Now we have a long break once again, but there is a lot for us to prepare for with so many unknowns going into the second half of the calendar, where every track will be new."

Münnich Motorsport

22 Aug 2021

WTCR Race of Hungary

Hungaroring, Hungary

WTCR 2021, Round 4

Sunday 22 Aug 2021, 14:51 Europe/London

#	Driver	Num	Nationality Nat.	Total	Points Pts.	Team	Constructor Constr.	Time/Gap
1	Santiago Urrutia	12	URU	25	25	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co	28'53.853
2	Frederic Vervisch	22	BEL	20	20	Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	Audi	+2.328
3	Mikel Azcona	96	SPA	16	16	Zengo Motorsport	Cupra	+3.387
4	Yann Ehrlacher	68	FRA	13	13	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co	+4.616
5	Nestor Girolami	29	ARG	11	11	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda	++6.245
6	Yvan Muller	100	FRA	10	10	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co	+8.503
7	Thed Björk	11	SWE	9	9	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co	+10.050
8	Esteban Guerrieri	86	ARG	8	8	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda	+12.707
9	Gilles Magnus	16	BEL	7	7	Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	Audi	+13.825
10	Attila Tassi	9	HUN	6	6	ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport	Honda	+16.248
11	Tiago Monteiro	18	POR	5	5	ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport	Honda	+17.187
12	Nathanael Berthon	17	FRA	4	4	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi	+18.124
13	Jean-Karl Vernay	69	FRA	3	3	Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team	Hyundai	+19.083
14	Norbert Michelisz	5	HUN	2	2	BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse	Hyundai	+19.619
15	Luca Engstler	8	GER	1	1	Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team	Hyundai	+23.387
16	Tom Coronel	32	NDL	-	0	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi	+28.984
17	Jordi Gene	28	SPA	-	0	Zengo Motorsport	Cupra	+29.421
18	Rob Huff	79	GBR	-	0	Zengo Motorsport	Cupra	+30.367
19	Bence Boldizs	55	HUN	-	0	Zengo Motorsport	Cupra	+32.022
20	Nicola Baldan	82	ITA	-	0	Target Competition	Hyundai	+38.978
21	Jessica Backman	26	SWE	-	0	Target Competition	Hyundai	+39.614
NC	Andreas Backman	19	SWE	-	0	Target Competition	Hyundai	+13 laps
NC	Gabriele Tarquini	3	ITA	-	0	BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse	Hyundai	+14 laps

Sunday 22 Aug 2021, 11:51 Europe/London

#	Driver	Num	Nationality Nat.	Total	Points Pts.	Team	Constructor Constr.	Time/Gap
1	Gilles Magnus	16	BEL	25	25	Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	Audi	30'41.529
2	Mikel Azcona	96	SPA	20	20	Zengo Motorsport	Cupra	+2.127
3	Yann Ehrlacher	68	FRA	16	16	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co	+2.682
4	Frederic Vervisch	22	BEL	13	13	Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	Audi	+3.628
5	Thed Björk	11	SWE	11	11	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co	+3.866
6	Norbert Michelisz	5	HUN	10	10	BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse	Hyundai	+4.140
7	Santiago Urrutia	12	URU	9	9	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co	+4.791
8	Esteban Guerrieri	86	ARG	8	8	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda	+6.181
9	Nestor Girolami	29	ARG	7	7	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda	+6.613
10	Tiago Monteiro	18	POR	6	6	ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport	Honda	+7.255
11	Luca Engstler	8	GER	5	5	Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team	Hyundai	+8.773
12	Gabriele Tarquini	3	ITA	4	4	BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse	Hyundai	+8.957
13	Attila Tassi	9	HUN	3	3	ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport	Honda	+10.397
14	Jean-Karl Vernay	69	FRA	2	2	Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team	Hyundai	+10.975
15	Yvan Muller	100	FRA	1	1	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co	+11.584
16	Jordi Gene	28	SPA	-	0	Zengo Motorsport	Cupra	+12.000
17	Bence Boldizs	55	HUN	-	0	Zengo Motorsport	Cupra	+13.125
18	Nicola Baldan	82	ITA	-	0	Target Competition	Hyundai	+16.092
19	Andreas Backman	19	SWE	-	0	Target Competition	Hyundai	+16.540
20	Jessica Backman	26	SWE	-	0	Target Competition	Hyundai	+17.057
21	Tom Coronel	32	NDL	-	0	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi	+17.824
NC	Nathanael Berthon	17	FRA	-	0	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi	+6 laps
NC	Rob Huff	79	GBR	-	0	Zengo Motorsport	Cupra	+8 laps

Saturday 21 Aug 2021, 16:11 Europe/London

#	Driver	Num	Nationality Nat.	Total	Team	Constructor Constr.	Time/Gap
1	Rob Huff	79	GBR	7	Zengo Motorsport	Cupra	1'51.993
2	Santiago Urrutia	12	URU	-	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co	1'52.290
3	Norbert Michelisz	5	HUN	-	BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse	Hyundai	1'52.342
4	Nestor Girolami	29	ARG	-	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda	1'52.534
5	Thed Björk	11	SWE	-	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co	1'52.538
6	Mikel Azcona	96	SPA	-	Zengo Motorsport	Cupra	1'52.278
7	Yann Ehrlacher	68	FRA	-	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co	1'52.325
8	Yvan Muller	100	FRA	-	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co	1'52.339
9	Frederic Vervisch	22	BEL	-	Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	Audi	1'52.393
10	Gilles Magnus	16	BEL	-	Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	Audi	1'52.522
11	Nathanael Berthon	17	FRA	-	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi	1'52.533
12	Esteban Guerrieri	86	ARG	-	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda	1'52.732
13	Tiago Monteiro	18	POR	-	ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport	Honda	1'52.843
14	Attila Tassi	9	HUN	-	ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport	Honda	1'52.946
15	Luca Engstler	8	GER	-	Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team	Hyundai	1'53.100
16	Jean-Karl Vernay	69	FRA	-	Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team	Hyundai	1'53.224
17	Gabriele Tarquini	3	ITA	-	BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse	Hyundai	1'53.368
18	Tom Coronel	32	NDL	-	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi	1'53.700
19	Jordi Gene	28	SPA	-	Zengo Motorsport	Cupra	1'53.733
20	Jessica Backman	26	SWE	-	Target Competition	Hyundai	1'53.960
21	Nicola Baldan	82	ITA	-	Target Competition	Hyundai	1'54.072
22	Bence Boldizs	55	HUN	-	Zengo Motorsport	Cupra	1'54.205
NC	Andreas Backman	19	SWE	-	Target Competition	Hyundai	-

Driver Standings

Sunday, 22 Aug 2021

#	Driver	Num	Nationality Nat.	Points Pts.	Team	Constructor Constr.
1	Yann EHRLACHER	68	FRA	103	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co
2	Santiago URRUTIA	12	URU	101	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co
3	Jean-Karl VERNAY	69	FRA	87	Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team	Hyundai
4	Gilles MAGNUS	16	BEL	84	Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	Audi
5	Frederic VERVISCH	22	BEL	82	Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	Audi
6	Yvan MULLER	100	FRA	78	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co
7	Thed BJöRK	11	SWE	73	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co
8	Mikel AZCONA	96	SPA	72	Zengo Motorsport	Cupra
9	Esteban GUERRIERI	86	ARG	72	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda
10	Nestor GIROLAMI	29	ARG	67	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda
11	Attila TASSI	9	HUN	66	ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport	Honda
12	Tiago MONTEIRO	18	POR	65	ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport	Honda
13	Gabriele TARQUINI	3	ITA	62	BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse	Hyundai
14	Norbert MICHELISZ	5	HUN	55	BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse	Hyundai
15	Nathanael BERTHON	17	FRA	55	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi
16	Luca ENGSTLER	8	GER	45	Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team	Hyundai
17	Tom CORONEL	32	NDL	34	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi
18	Rob HUFF	79	GBR	27	Zengo Motorsport	Cupra
19	Jordi GENE	28	SPA	5	Zengo Motorsport	Cupra
20	Bence BOLDIZS	55	HUN	3	Zengo Motorsport	Cupra
21	Jessica BACKMAN	26	SWE	2	Target Competition	Hyundai
22	Andreas BACKMAN	19	SWE	1	Target Competition	Hyundai