Nestor Girolami opened the 2020 WTCR – FIA World Touring Car Cup season with a victory, on a day of triumphs in the face of adversity for the ALL-INKL.COM and ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport teams.

‘Bebu’ led from lights to flag in Sunday’s 13-lap opening race to claim his fourth WTCR win at the wheel of the JAS Motorsport-built Honda Civic Type R TCR.

After making a fine getaway from pole position, the Argentinian never looked like ceding the lead and clinched a comfortable victory – an excellent result made even better by a first podium in the WTCR for ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport driver Attila Tassi.

That, coupled with a measured drive to fifth in race two, means Nestor holds an early second place in the Drivers’ Championship after the first of this season’s six rounds, seven points behind the series leader.

Things were less serene on the other side of the ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport garage for Nestor’s compatriot Esteban Guerrieri.

Having made an excellent start to the opening race, as he advanced from 11th on the grid to eighth, Esteban retired after two laps as a result of radiator damage – a fate also suffered by ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport driver Tiago Monteiro.

Unfazed by the task in hand, both operations completed engine changes in less than two hours before the start of race two, with both drivers rewarding that hard work with top-15 finishes.

From 21st on the grid – a consequence of the team working on the cars in parc ferme conditions – Esteban made up seven places on the first lap alone, recovering to 13th at the finish.

Tiago – who like Esteban had also made an excellent start to race one before his issue; climbing from 17th on the grid to 14th before he stopped – made similar ground, advancing from the back of the grid to finish 15th, only to drop to 19th after a post-race penalty was applied.

Attila’s drive to third in race one was one that oozed maturity, as the 21-year-old balanced hounding the car ahead for second with defending his place on the podium. A maiden WTCR rostrum was no less than he deserved.

He would likely have been on for a top-five finish in race two as well but, having climbed a position to sixth at the start, contact at the Thierry Boutsen chicane sent him to the back of the field.

Undeterred, he staged an improbable comeback to join the fight for the final points positions. He crossed the line in 16th, though was also handed a penalty and eventually classified 20th.

In addition to Nestor’s second place in the Drivers’ Championship, ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport is third in the Teams’ standings, with the ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport squad ninth.

The Honda Civic Type R TCR drivers now face a quick turnaround before heading to the Nurburgring Nordschleife for the second round of the season in under a fortnight.

Nestor Girolami

Nestor Girolami 29

"To get a victory and be second in the Championship is an excellent way to start the season, particularly as it was a tough weekend for us. In race two I maximised the opportunity we had at the start; it was really important to overtake two cars, because we saw in race one that it's so difficult to overtake. In our case, we minimized the damage this weekend because it wasn’t easy for any of us. It's a shame for my team-mates that they had issues, but I think everyone at Münnich Motorsport did the maximum possible and I want to congratulate all my crew and the team again for turning out the four cars; it’s not easy, but they managed to do it very well."

ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport
Esteban Guerrieri

Esteban Guerrieri 86

"I’m very thankful to the ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport guys that they were able to get my car ready for the start of race two after the disappointment of race one. In the second race I got a good start to gain quite a few positions and took advantage of some situations before the safety car. If I’m honest, I thought the restart was a little bit too early, so I was not prepared. I lost the train in front a little bit and had to repass a car, so I lost a bit of time. But it was at least good to get a couple of points from the weekend, and of course I’m happy for Nestor for his victory and Attila for getting a podium, and for the team as well because we got a good result at the end of a complicated weekend."

ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport
Attila Tassi

Attila Tassi 9

"I’m very happy to start with a podium, which was one of my aims heading into this new season - it’s a great way to begin this new chapter with ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport, and I’m grateful for their support. Unfortunately race two was not ideal. I had a good start and overtook one car, and then was involved in a fight with Thed Bjork; it was clean, and even under braking for the chicane we didn’t touch, but then when we turned in we made contact and unfortunately immediately my car snapped straight into the tyre barrier. It’s a shame because we could have collected more points, but there are still a lot of races in the championship - even though it is not as long as usual.”

ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport
Tiago Monteiro

Tiago Monteiro 18

"First of all, the guys did such an amazing job to repair the car in such a short time after race one. We had roughly two hours, and it's not an easy task, so congratulations to them. We started last, so it was really a matter of recovering as many places as possible. I had a lot of fun with a number of drivers, and it was good to fight with many of them, but some are more fair play than others, and some of them need to get used to how we play. It’s definitely not the weekend we wanted, that's clear, but we never give up. Of course we have to understand what went wrong - there were a few things in qualifying, and the performance overall was not exactly as we wanted."

ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport
Dominik Greiner

Dominik Greiner

Team Manager

"We are very happy with Nestor’s performance, he did a brilliant job with his victory, and it was also a good drive from Attila to score his first podium. We have frustration for Tiago and Esteban in race one, but it was an absolutely perfect job by the mechanics to get two engines changed in less than two hours - a mega job, particularly as it was also hot today, so we can be very proud to have such great mechanics in the team. It's still not the result we expected for the season opener; it's a very short season and every weekend is much more important than normal, and you need to score in every race, so a zero is very tough to recover from. But we keep going, we won't give up, and I think all four drivers are still in good positions to score good points."

Münnich Motorsport
Mads Fischer

Mads Fischer

TCR Project Leader, JAS Motorsport

“The Münnich Motorsport guys did a great job in managing to get both cars ready in time for race two and out with no problems after the difficulties of race one, so that was already a big victory. And of course, Bebu had a good weekend and got good points in the bank. Overall it’s a good start; we have to catch up a little bit, but it’s going to come. Turning to the Nurburgring, it’s going to be a tough weekend, but we will get over this one also. The drivers like it, so if we can manage to get some speed in the car in the old part of the circuit like we had last year, then I think it should be a good race for us there.”

JAS Motorsport
WTCR Race of Belgium

Circuit Zolder, Belgium

WTCR 2020, Round 1

Sunday 13 Sep 2020, 13:58 Europe/London
# Driver Num Nationality Nat. Total Points Pts. Team Constructor Constr. Time/Gap
1 Yann Ehrlacher 68 FRA 25 0 Cyan Racing Lynk & Co Lynk & Co 18 laps
2 Yvan Muller 100 FRA 20 0 Cyan Racing Lynk & Co Lynk & Co +0.870
3 Santiago Urrutia 12 URU 16 0 Cyan Performance Lynk & Co Lynk & Co +1.376
4 Gilles Magnus 16 BEL 13 0 Comtoyou Racing Audi +1.940
5 Nestor Girolami 29 ARG 11 0 ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Honda +2.617
6 Tom Coronel 31 NDL 10 0 Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport Audi +5.694
7 Jean-Karl Vernay 69 FRA 9 0 Mulsanne Srl Alfa Romeo +7.395
8 Norbert Michelisz 1 HUN 8 0 BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse Hyundai +8.128
9 Nick Catsburg 88 NDL 7 0 Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team Hyundai +8.678
10 Luca Engstler 8 GER 6 0 Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team Hyundai +9.715
11 Mikel Azcona 96 SPA 5 0 Zengo Motorsport Cupra +9.999
12 Dylan O'Keefe AUS 4 0 +10.173
13 Esteban Guerrieri 86 ARG 3 0 ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Honda +11.175
14 Nathanael Berthon 17 FRA 2 0 Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport Audi +14.981
15 Gabriele Tarquini 30 ITA 1 0 BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse Hyundai +18.354
16 Luca Filippi 25 ITA - 0 Mulsanne Srl Alfa Romeo +20.851
17 Bence Boldizs 55 HUN - 0 Zengo Motorsport Cupra +21.360
18 Gabor Kismarty-Lechner 99 HUN - 0 Zengo Motorsport Cupra +21.613
19 Tiago Monteiro 18 POR - 0 ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport Honda +25.688
20 Attila Tassi 9 HUN - 0 ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport Honda +48.018
21 Jack Young 7 GBR - 0 Vukovic Motorsport Renault +
NC Thed Björk 11 SWE - 0 Cyan Performance Lynk & Co Lynk & Co DNF
Sunday 13 Sep 2020, 10:20 Europe/London
# Driver Num Nationality Nat. Total Points Pts. Team Constructor Constr. Time/Gap
1 Nestor Girolami 29 ARG 25 0 ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Honda 13 laps
2 Thed Björk 11 SWE 20 0 Cyan Performance Lynk & Co Lynk & Co +1.127
3 Attila Tassi 9 HUN 16 0 ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport Honda +1.844
4 Tom Coronel 31 NDL 13 0 Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport Audi +2.072
5 Jean-Karl Vernay 69 FRA 11 0 Mulsanne Srl Alfa Romeo +4.632
6 Santiago Urrutia 12 URU 10 0 Cyan Performance Lynk & Co Lynk & Co +6.050
7 Yann Ehrlacher 68 FRA 9 0 Cyan Racing Lynk & Co Lynk & Co +6.674
8 Yvan Muller 100 FRA 8 0 Cyan Racing Lynk & Co Lynk & Co +7.382
9 Nathanael Berthon 17 FRA 7 0 Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport Audi +7.794
10 Gilles Magnus 16 BEL 6 0 Comtoyou Racing Audi +12.585
11 Norbert Michelisz 1 HUN 5 0 BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse Hyundai +15.513
12 Luca Engstler 8 GER 4 0 Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team Hyundai +16.085
13 Dylan O'Keefe AUS 0 0 +18.135
14 Nick Catsburg 88 NDL 3 0 Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team Hyundai +21.572
15 Gabriele Tarquini 30 ITA 2 0 BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse Hyundai +23.527
16 Mikel Azcona 96 SPA 1 0 Zengo Motorsport Cupra +25.323
17 Bence Boldizs 55 HUN 0 0 Zengo Motorsport Cupra +31.621
18 Luca Filippi 25 ITA 0 0 Mulsanne Srl Alfa Romeo +34.240
19 Gabor Kismarty-Lechner 99 HUN 0 0 Zengo Motorsport Cupra +50.562
20 Jack Young 7 GBR 0 0 Vukovic Motorsport Renault +1 lap
NC Tiago Monteiro 18 POR 0 0 ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport Honda DNF
NC Esteban Guerrieri 86 ARG 0 0 ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Honda DNF
Saturday 12 Sep 2020, 16:49 Europe/London
# Driver Num Nationality Nat. Total Team Constructor Constr. Time/Gap
1 Nathanael Berthon 17 FRA 5 Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport Audi 1:35.486
2 Yann Ehrlacher 68 FRA 9 Cyan Racing Lynk & Co Lynk & Co +1:35.517
3 Gilles Magnus 16 BEL 6 Comtoyou Racing Audi +1:35.527
4 Santiago Urrutia 12 URU 2 Cyan Performance Lynk & Co Lynk & Co +1:35.880
5 Yvan Muller 100 FRA 3 Cyan Racing Lynk & Co Lynk & Co +1:36.090
6 Tom Coronel 31 NDL 1 Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport Audi +1:35.907
7 Attila Tassi 9 HUN - ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport Honda +1:35.941
8 Thed Björk 11 SWE 4 Cyan Performance Lynk & Co Lynk & Co +1:35.993
9 Jean-Karl Vernay 69 FRA - Mulsanne Srl Alfa Romeo +1:36.065
10 Nestor Girolami 29 ARG - ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Honda +1:36.119
11 Esteban Guerrieri 86 ARG - ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Honda +1:36.301
12 Norbert Michelisz 1 HUN - BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse Hyundai +1:36.606
13 Dylan O'Keefe 33 AUS - Vukovic Motorsport Renault +1:36.877
14 Nick Catsburg 88 NDL - Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team Hyundai +1:37.025
15 Gabriele Tarquini 30 ITA - BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse Hyundai +1:37.054
16 Jack Young 7 GBR - Vukovic Motorsport Renault +1:37.062
17 Luca Engstler 8 GER - Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team Hyundai +1:37.172
18 Tiago Monteiro 18 POR - ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport Honda +1:37.192
19 Luca Filippi 25 ITA - Mulsanne Srl Alfa Romeo +1:37.235
20 Bence Boldizs 55 HUN - Zengo Motorsport Cupra +1:37.353
21 Mikel Azcona 96 SPA - Zengo Motorsport Cupra +1:37.410
22 Gabor Kismarty-Lechner 99 HUN - Zengo Motorsport Cupra +1:39.731