Race Report

Guerrieri moves into WTCR series lead at Zandvoort

18 May 2019

WTCR Race of Netherlands

Circuit Zandvoort, Netherlands

WTCR 2019, Round 4

Esteban Guerrieri snatched the lead of the WTCR – FIA World Touring Car Cup on a challenging day for Honda Civic Type R TCR drivers at Zandvoort.

Entering the weekend weighed down by 50kg of compensation weight, the event was expected to be a tough one for ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport, and so Saturday proved.

With just 0.4 seconds separating the cars from fifth to 22nd in morning qualifying, both Guerrieri and his formerly points-leading team-mate Nestor Girolami secured 16th and 14th places on the grid for the opening race.

However, with both denied a new-tyre flying lap at the end of the session as a red flag ended things two minutes early, neither Argentinian had the opportunity to challenge for the top six.

With ‘Bebu’ suffering a five-place grid drop for overtaking another car under red-flag conditions while running at extremely slow speed at pit entry, and other cars also penalised, Esteban was promoted to 14th on the grid.

From there he started strongly and finished 12th. With Bebu starting 18th, but recovering to a points-paying 15th, he is now one point behind Esteban in the title battle while Münnich are 47 clear in the Teams’ Championship.

KCMG’s Attila Tassi was also hit hard by the end-of-session red flag. The team had made significant strides in performance since the Slovakiaring event last weekend and were also part of the tightly-bunched midfield pack.

Attila was denied the chance to improve while Tiago Monteiro was on-course to move into the top 10 on his final flying lap, only to run off the circuit and into the gravel late-on.

From 21st and 25th, Attila and Tiago finished 18th and 21st in the race. Attila was later excluded when a broken connector in his ECU left his car unable to be properly checked by officials post-race, which promoted Tiago to 20th.

Sunday features a separate qualifying session to set the grid for Races Two and Three.

2019 WTCR Race of Netherlands

Honda Pro Racing / David Noels

Esteban Guerrieri ⁸⁶

“It hasn’t been my best day. Even with 50kg compensation weight, I should have been a bit faster in qualifying, though not being able to use my new tyres at the end – because of the red flag – definitely cost me positions. I benefitted from penalties to other drivers to start 14th, made a good start and finished 12th. The first few laps were intense so once things settled down, I just focused on protecting the car. Yes; it’s the championship lead, but a lot can happen in two races tomorrow, so we’ll work to make the car as fast as possible to make sure we’re in the mix.”

ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport

Nestor Girolami ²⁹

“It’s been a frustrating day. We knew the weekend would be tough because in a championship this tight, when you have to carry 50kg compensation weight, it’s difficult. Still, our pace was good. I was just 0.2 seconds away from being fifth, and instead I was 14th and without any opportunity to use new tyres because the red flags ended the session early. Then I overtook a car at very slow speed under the red flags as I was entering the pits, so I got a penalty. From 18th, at least I recovered to score one point. Tomorrow’s another day and if I qualify in the top 10, I can score big points.”

ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport

Attila Tassi ⁹

“We planned four flying laps for qualifying, but I only really completed one properly. On the first I had a yellow flag, so had to back off, then I had traffic on my next, I did one proper lap and then we had the red flag at the end, so the opportunity to improve was gone. The positive is that we’re definitely closer to being the fastest Honda than in Slovakia or Hungary, so that’s a great sign. We’ll definitely be stronger tomorrow.”

KCMG

Tiago Monteiro ¹⁸

“Today was much better than we had in Slovakia for outright pace, so that’s a real positive. I was pushing hard at the end of qualifying and just made a mistake, so I started outside the top 20. The race was OK; I started well, then dropped back, then regained some places. We’re working hard to make things better for tomorrow because we’re definitely mid-pack on pace, so we need to get the results to show this.”

KCMG

Dominik Greiner

Team Manager

“The race went quite well really. Both drivers made up positions at the start, both scored points, both brought the cars back without damage and we still lead both championships. It was qualifying that cost us. We can’t do anything about the compensation weight, but without the red flag, both drivers could have improved by a couple of tenths and that would put them both in the top six or seven, so we know the pace is there. We’ll work hard overnight to make sure we’re ready to attack in qualifying.”

ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport

Dario d'Esposito

Team Principal

“The work we’ve done since Slovakia has really paid off, and we can see this in our true pace in qualifying, even if the results didn’t reflect it. Atilla would have been inside the top 15 easily without the red flag and Tiago was also on-course to start higher. Both drivers have a better feeling with the car and we felt confident enough to try two very different set-ups in the race to gather data for tomorrow. I think we’re looking in a good shape to keep closing the gap.”

KCMG

Mads Fischer

TCR Project Leader, JAS Motorsport

“I’m quite happy with the speed of the cars with 50kg compensation weight. With the exception of one brand that’s had a very good BoP for qualifying, everybody else is more or less identical on pace, so it’s been very tight. From the red flag at the end of qualifying that prevented the Hondas having a final run, it was going to be a tough race, but they all started well, points were scored and the speed looks quite ok for tomorrow’s two races.”

JAS Motorsport

18 May 2019

WTCR Race of Netherlands

Circuit Zandvoort, Netherlands

Saturday 18 May 2019, 14:10 Europe/London

#	Driver	Num	Nationality Nat.	Total	Team	Constructor Constr.	Time/Gap
1	Thed Björk	11	SWE	25	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co	12 laps
2	Yvan Muller	100	FRA	20	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co	+0.704
3	Mikel Azcona	96	SPA	16	PWR Racing	Cupra	+1.270
4	Johan Kristoffersson	14	SWE	13	Sébastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen	Volkswagen	+3.062
5	Andy Priaulx	111	GBR	11	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co	+3.631
6	Mehdi Bennani	25	MAR	10	Sébastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen Motorsport	Volkswagen	+4.227
7	Yann Ehrlacher	68	FRA	9	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co	+4.592
8	Benjamin Leuchter	33	GER	8	Sébastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen	Volkswagen	+5.179
9	Frederic Vervisch	22	BEL	7	Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	Audi	+5.870
10	Nick Catsburg	88	NDL	6	BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team	Hyundai	+5.984
11	Jean-Karl Vernay	69	FRA	5	Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport	Audi	+6.525
12	Esteban Guerrieri	86	ARG	4	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda	+6.768
13	Daniel Haglof	37	SWE	3	PWR Racing	Cupra	+7.167
14	Aurélien Panis	21	FRA	2	Comtoyou DHL Team Cupra Racing	Audi	+9.185
15	Nestor Girolami	29	ARG	1	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda	+9.460
16	Niels Langeveld	10	NDL	0	Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	Audi	+9.939
17	Tom Coronel	50	NDL	0	Comtoyou DHL Team Cupra Racing	Cupra	+10.892
18	Attila Tassi	9	HUN	0	KCMG	Honda	+13.074
19	Gordon Shedden	52	GBR	0	Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport	Audi	+15.483
20	Kevin Ceccon	31	ITA	0	Mulsanne Srl	Alfa Romeo	+15.773
21	Tiago Monteiro	18	POR	0	KCMG	Honda	+16.946
22	Gabriele Tarquini	1	ITA	0	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai	+17.397
23	Qing Hua Ma	55	CHN	0	Mulsanne Srl	Alfa Romeo	+17.503
NC	Norbert Michelisz	5	HUN	0	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai	DNF
NC	Rob Huff	12	GBR	0	Sébastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen Motorsport	Volkswagen	DNF
NC	Augusto Farfus	8	BRA	0	BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team	Hyundai	DNF

Saturday 18 May 2019, 08:00 Europe/London

#	Driver	Num	Nationality Nat.	Total	Team	Constructor Constr.	Time/Gap
1	Thed Björk	11	SWE	5	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co	1:44.080
2	Yvan Muller	100	FRA	4	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co	+1:44.153
3	Andy Priaulx	111	GBR	3	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co	+1:44.196
4	Yann Ehrlacher	68	FRA	2	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co	+1:44.313
5	Mikel Azcona	96	SPA	1	PWR Racing	Cupra	+1:44.801
6	Benjamin Leuchter	33	GER	0	Sébastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen	Volkswagen	+1:44.804
7	Johan Kristoffersson	14	SWE	0	Sébastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen	Volkswagen	+1:44.810
8	Daniel Haglof	37	SWE	0	PWR Racing	Cupra	+1:44.856
9	Jean-Karl Vernay	69	FRA	0	Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport	Audi	+1:44.867
10	Mehdi Bennani	25	MAR	0	Sébastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen Motorsport	Volkswagen	+1:44.874
11	Nick Catsburg	88	NDL	0	BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team	Hyundai	+1:44.902
12	Frederic Vervisch	22	BEL	0	Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	Audi	+1:44.960
13	Norbert Michelisz	5	HUN	0	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai	+1:44.972
14	Nestor Girolami	29	ARG	0	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda	+1:45.005
15	Rob Huff	12	GBR	0	Sébastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen Motorsport	Volkswagen	+1:45.177
16	Esteban Guerrieri	86	ARG	0	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda	+1:45.215
17	Aurélien Panis	21	FRA	0	Comtoyou DHL Team Cupra Racing	Audi	+1:45.217
18	Augusto Farfus	8	BRA	0	BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team	Hyundai	+1:45.222
19	Niels Langeveld	10	NDL	0	Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	Audi	+1:45.248
20	Gabriele Tarquini	1	ITA	0	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai	+1:45.265
21	Tom Coronel	50	NDL	0	Comtoyou DHL Team Cupra Racing	Cupra	+1:45.272
22	Attila Tassi	9	HUN	0	KCMG	Honda	+1:45.415
23	Qing Hua Ma	55	CHN	0	Mulsanne Srl	Alfa Romeo	+1:45.466
24	Gordon Shedden	52	GBR	0	Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport	Audi	+1:45.728
25	Kevin Ceccon	31	ITA	0	Mulsanne Srl	Alfa Romeo	+1:45.793
26	Tiago Monteiro	18	POR	0	KCMG	Honda	+1:46.217