Civic Type R TCR drivers grind out Aragon points finishes
Motorland AragónAll four of Honda Racing’s WTCR - FIA World Touring Car Cup drivers battled their way to points finishes on an incredibly tough raceday at Motorland Aragon.
After a tricky Saturday, during which all four Honda Civic Type R TCRs were eliminated in the first part of qualifying, both races were expected to be difficult affairs.
But the drivers and both Münnich Motorsport teams dug in to get themselves on the board, with Esteban Guerrieri making the points twice.
The Argentinian had performed a minor miracle to qualify 16th on Saturday, and made just the start he needed to get himself into contention for the points in Race One by overtaking two competitors on the opening lap.
Despite putting himself in the right places to capitalise on any errors from those ahead, Esteban gradually fell back and his ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Civic Type R TCR - carrying 60kg compensation weight and an additional 10kg of Balance of Performance weight, as was the case for all of the Hondas - ended up 15th.
Esteban made another excellent getaway in Race Two to climb from 15th to 12th and, despite being tapped from behind early on and ceding positions, came on strong towards the finish to claim a weekend’s best of 11th place - though that became 13th after he received a five-second post-race penalty.
His compatriot Nestor Girolami also made a strong start in Race Two by improving to 15th from 19th on the grid. Though he dipped in and out of the points from there, a late flurry of incidents and some incisive overtaking meant he was 12th in the final classification.
That was a far more fruitful result than in Race One, in which ‘Bebu’ - like his team-mates - had little opportunity to advance and came home 19th after starting 21st.
Hot on Nestor’s heels in Race Two were ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport duo Tiago Monteiro and Attila Tassi, who were 14th and 15th respectively.
Their race came alive with the intervention of the Safety Car late on, after which both were able to pick off competitors to end the day by adding to their Drivers’ Championship points totals.
Attila ended up 18th in Race One, while a drivethrough penalty for passing through the pitlane twice before the start effectively ended Tiago’s Race One before it had started as he came home 21st.
There is now a three-week gap until the third round of the season at Adria International Raceway. The Italian circuit is a new venue for the WTCR, and will mark the end of the first half of the 2021 season.
It was obviously a very, very tough weekend, but where the sporting aspects are concerned it was one of the best for a long time. I just felt like everyone in the team - the mechanics, my engineer, me - maximised every possibility and we managed to somehow get the water out of the stone, which in this case was two points finishes. I’m very thankful for what the ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport guys have done this weekend, especially considering the heat. They did everything perfectly and there were no mistakes. From this point of view at least, it was brilliant.
It was a difficult day, but at least we managed to score something in Race Two even if we weren’t able to fight for the big points. From yesterday we saw that the pace wasn’t there and we were hurt by two big factors, the weight and the high temperatures. I’m very thankful for the work that the engineers and mechanics have done, everyone was pushing to the absolute maximum. Even so, it was a surprise to be so far away. Now we need to analyse the data and look into the finer details before the next round at Adria, because if we want to fight for the Championship the key for the remaining races is to be in the top 10.
The two races were really hard, as expected. The balance actually felt good; OK, the car was heavy so it wasn’t going to be amazingly fast, but it felt fine and as though we had the optimum package we could work with. It’s just that we were too slow in a straight line and on acceleration with the extra weight. Fighting like crazy to finish dead last - with a penalty - in Race One was quite frustrating, and Race Two was a bit boring in a train of cars until the Safety Car shook things up a bit. Everybody got excited, and there were a few mistakes, so we gained some places and scored two points. But that’s the only real positive from this weekend.
Those were two very hot and very hard races. Luckily in Race Two we managed to at least score one point, but to be honest it was mostly due to us staying out of trouble and others having bad luck. With the extra 70kg we were carrying due to the compensation weight and Balance of Performance changes this weekend I didn’t think we were quite there in terms of pace, but I think we maximised the result and the team did a good job to give us the car to do that. Let’s move on to Adria.
It was important to score as many points as we could with both teams and looking at the races today I don’t think we could have expected more. As the drivers have already mentioned, the team were absolutely faultless in preparing the cars so while on the one hand we are still a bit disappointed that 12th was the best result, we must highlight what a fantastic job they have done. One small bonus as well is the cars all came back in one piece, so well done to the drivers too for keeping out of trouble and getting the job done.
While these points finishes are of course not the results we hoped for before the weekend, after qualifying this is realistically the best we could have expected so we have to commend the drivers. They really had to wait for their time in the races but they made the most of their chances and their hard work paid off. Well done to Münnich Motorsport as well, because they put the Honda Civic Type R TCR in a window where the drivers were able to fight for these points in really tough circumstances this weekend.”
