Following a nine-month wait for the WTCR – FIA World Touring Car Cup season to get underway, Honda’s customer racing teams now face a second round in three weekends as they prepare to take on the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife in Germany.

A victory and a podium respectively for the ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport and ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport teams at Zolder two weeks ago means both are up and running for 2020, while all four drivers have recent Nordschleife highlights to draw inspiration from in the hunt for silverware this weekend.

Nestor Girolami heads to Germany as the best-placed of the Honda Civic Type R TCR contingent, the ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport racer sitting second in the Drivers’ Championship thanks to a victory and a fifth place at the season opener.

‘Bebu’ showed a strong turn of speed at the 25.9km circuit last year, qualifying and finishing third – after a thrilling three-wide battle – in the opening race.

His team-mate Esteban Guerrieri has Nordschleife pedigree as well; the Argentinian claimed his first WTCR victory at the track in 2018, and last year set a new series record for the largest pole position margin – which stands at 6.032 seconds.

Esteban’s opening 2020 race weekend was anything but straightforward, but he bagged four vital points from the back row of the race-two grid and will hope to carry that momentum into the second round.

ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport’s Attila scored the best result of his rookie campaign in the WTCR at the ‘Green Hell’ last year, sealing fourth in race two despite having no pre-event knowledge of the track aside from pre-event simulator work.

He has gone one better than that already this season, scoring his first WTCR podium in the opening race at Zolder – a result the 21-year-old is hungry to build on.

Tiago Monteiro, who like Esteban is looking to bounce back from a tough season opener, also has success at the Nordschleife to call on, having been part of the class-winning Honda Civic Type R TCR squad in last year’s concurrent 24-hour race.

The WTCR event programme works alongside that contest again this year, with practice and qualifying staged on Thursday, race one taking place on Friday and race two on Saturday morning.

A two-race schedule for 2020 means Friday’s 40-minute qualifying takes on an additional significance, with double points awarded to the top-five qualifiers in the session.

Nestor Girolami

Nestor Girolami 29

"I have good memories from Nürburgring last year; it was great to be on the podium with Esteban in the opening race, after giving 100% on the last lap in a very close battle with Rob Huff. On the other hand it was a shame that we had an issue for exceeding the noise limit during second qualifying and this affected our results in races two and three. But anyway, we have plenty of reasons to be confident ahead of this year’s race. The Honda Civic Type R TCR is a very capable car here, and we travel knowing myself and ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport maximised our opportunities at Zolder. Hopefully we can build on that strong start with another good weekend."

ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport
Esteban Guerrieri

Esteban Guerrieri 86

"It wasn't the start to the season we were expecting at Zolder, but the short gap between race weekends gives us the perfect opportunity to bounce back at a track I have good memories of from the past two years, which is also the home race for ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport. Last year was a particularly good weekend at the Nürburgring, with the pole position and two podiums, and that is as good a motivation as any to kickstart our season. I've had a good feeling in the Honda here previously, particularly through the medium-speed corners, so this should give some confidence to attack from the off this weekend."

ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport
Attila Tassi

Attila Tassi 9

"Last year was my first time driving on the Nordschleife and all the time since I have been looking forward to coming back, so I'm pleased it is part of our 2020 calendar. Our pace was strong last year and although the weekend can be unpredictable and a lot may rest on one qualifying session, I have been happy with how I extracted the one-lap pace from the car so far. I've already ticked one of the boxes that I wanted to for this year by scoring a podium, but that doesn't change much for this weekend - if anything, it increases my motivation because I have proved I am capable of top-three finishes and I want to be achieving them regularly."

ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport
Tiago Monteiro

Tiago Monteiro 18

"I have very fond memories from my visit here last year, being part of the Team Castrol Honda Racing crew that won the TCR class in the 24 Hours. We know because of this that the car is a proven performer on the Nordschleife, so there's no reason for this not to be the case in the WTCR weekend. I competed in one NLS race towards the end of June, so I have some recent experience to draw on at the beginning of the weekend. That will be a boost as we look to bounce back from a tough opening round. There's been a little bit of time to reset, so let's push to get our season back on track."

ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport
WTCR Race of Germany

Nürburgring, Germany

WTCR 2020, Round 2