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Ruben Volt wins but Tom Coronel is champion after troubles for Kobe Pauwels

Ruben Volt won the final TCR Europe race of the season in Barcelona, but it was Tom Coronel who secured the overall drivers’ title, after Comtoyou Racing team-mate Kobe Pauwels retired with a car issue.

Pauwels had been due to start the partially reversed-grid race from ninth on the grid, ahead of Coronel, but the Belgian pulled into the pitlane at the end of the warmup lap with an issue on his Audi RS3.

That prevented him from taking the start, effectively giving Coronel a trouble-free run to the title, with the Dutchman duly securing his first-ever outright drivers’ title in touring car racing.

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At the start, Volt was on pole but Volcano Motorsport’s Daniel Tkachenko crept before the lights went out and assumed the lead, only to later be handed a drive-through penalty for the infraction.

Volt didn’t need to wait for the Ukrainian to serve his penalty though, and took the lead when Tkachenko went wide after a safety car restart.

The two-lap safety car period was needed when Coronel and Viktor Davidovski made contact on lap four whilst battling for fourth – slight contact going into Turn 5 saw Davidovski’s Audi spun off into the gravel, getting stuck and requiring a tow out.

Coronel thus assumed fourth, which became third when Tkachenko served his penalty. Certain of taking the title, Coronel didn’t need to press hard to hold the place and two laps from the finish he was passed by Viktor Andersson for the final podium place into Turn 10, Coronel putting up little fight.

Volt claimed his second win of the season, the Estonian comfortably the fastest driver on track in his Honda, ahead of Comtoyou’s John Filippi, who moved up to second in the standings in the process.

For Andersson, incredibly it was the MA:GP driver’s first podium finish of the season, with new champion Coronel taking fourth.

Comtoyou duo Nicola Baldan and Lewis Brown were fifth and sixth respectively, ahead of RC2 Racing’s Pepe Oriola.

The top ten was completed by Aggressive Team Italia’s Levente Losonczy, RC2’s Rubén Fernández Gil, and the second Aggressive Team Italia Hyundai of Mauro Guastamacchia.

Tkachenko was 11th after his penalty, with Davidovski a lap down after being recovered from the gravel.

Race result

POS NO CL NAT DRIVER ENTRANT CAR LAPS TIME BEST GD
1 127 Ruben VOLT ALM Motorsport Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR 14 28:14.275 1:50.975 1
2 27 John FILIPPI Comtoyou Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR II 14 0.605 1:51.065 8
3 10 Viktor ANDERSSON MA:GP Lynk & Co 03 TCR 14 4.019 1:51.400 6
4 34 Tom CORONEL Comtoyou Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR II 14 4.810 1:51.418 10
5 8 Nicola BALDAN Comtoyou Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR II 14 6.623 1:51.151 5
6 39 Lewis BROWN Comtoyou Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR II 14 7.058 1:51.074 7
7 74 Pepe ORIOLA RC2 Racing Team Audi RS3 LMS TCR II 14 11.695 1:52.094 11
8 264 Levente LOSONCZY Aggressive Team Italia Hyundai Elantra N TCR 14 12.508 1:51.874 4
9 12 Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil RC2 Racing Team Audi RS3 LMS TCR II 14 16.753 1:52.425 12
10 293 Mauro GUASTAMACCHIA Aggressive Team Italia Hyundai Elantra N TCR 14 26.306 1:53.159 13
11 7 Daniel TKACHENKO Volcano Motorsport Audi RS3 LMS TCR II 14 28.095 1:51.211 2
12 11 Viktor DAVIDOVSKI Comtoyou Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR II 13 + 1 LAP 1:51.799 3
NS 22 Kobe PAUWELS Comtoyou Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR II DNS N/A 9
NS 33 Horia-Traian CHIRIGUT Volcano Motorsport Audi RS3 LMS TCR II DNS N/A
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