Dan Lloyd wins opening TCR Europe series race at Paul Ricard
Brutal Fish Racing’s Dan Lloyd surged to an impressive victory in the opening TCR Europe series race of the year at Paul Ricard.
The Honda Civic Type-R TCR driver made a strong start from third on the grid to move into the lead at the first corner before building a small gap which he maintained throughout the ten-lap encounter.
Comtoyou Racing’s Mehdi Bennani finished a close second in his first outing in the series in his Audi RS 3 LMS, while pole-sitter John Filippi completed the podium in his Target Competition Hyundai i30 N TCR.
At the start, Filippi bogged down slightly off the line, which allowed Lloyd to leapfrog from third into the lead by Turn 1.
The pair nearly went side-by-side at the first corner, but Filippi was forced to momentarily take to the run-off area which in turn enabled Bennani to grab second on exit.
Lloyd then opened up a slender advantage of three-tenths of a second from the Moroccan in the Comtoyou Racing Audi RS 3 LMS.
The top three remained closely-knit throughout the duration of the ten-lap race, with the Team Clairet Sport Peugeot 308TCRs of Teddy and Jimmy Clairet behind.
Behind the leading group of six, Pepe Oriola was embroiled in an entertaining battle with the pair of Target Competition Hyundais of Jessica and Andreas Bäckman.
Jessica twice tried to get around the Brutal Fish Racing Honda Civic Type-R TCR but ultimately got usurped by brother Andreas to take up the fight.
Andreas then got past Oriola at Turn 11 to grab seventh, while Jessica’s attempts to wrestle eighth from the Spaniard ended in disaster, as contact put both out of the race.
The pair ran side-by into the final corner, but Oriola clipped the left-rear of Bäckman’s i30 on exit, pitching the Swede into a spin on the main straight. Both retired soon after.
Out front, there was no change in the leading quartet, but Néstor Girolami managed to get by Jimmy Clairet for fifth by the flag.
Andreas Bäckman ensured that there were two Target Hyundais inside the top ten, while Sami Taoufik brought home the second Comtoyou Racing Audi RS 3 LMS in eighth.
Mat’o Homola endured a quiet race in his BRC Racing Hyundai i30 N TCR, finishing ninth with a recovering Halder completing the top ten in his Profi Car Team Halder Honda Civic Type-R TCR.
The German had been running strongly in the points early on suffered a wild moment at the fast Signes corner and nearly spun his Honda a full 360 degrees.
He caught the car before spinning at the next corner while battling Julien Briché, most likely on dirty tyres.
Race 2 at Paul Ricard is scheduled to take place tomorrow at 12:15 CEST.
