Dan Lloyd leaves Paul Ricard with narrow TCR Europe points lead

Brutal Fish Racing’s Dan Lloyd takes a slender one-point advantage into the second round of the TCR Europe series at Zolder in three weeks’ time after a two strong finishes at Paul Ricard.

The Honda Civic Type-R TCR driver recorded the first race win of the season on Saturday after a sensational start from third on the grid.

Jumping past pole-sitter John Filippi (Target Competition Hyundai i30 N TCR) into the first corner, Lloyd was able to build a steady margin over Comtoyou Racing’s Mehdi Bennani which he kept until the end.

Lloyd then finished sixth in Sunday’s second race of the weekend, one place behind Bennani, which means just one point splits the pair heading to Belgium in September.

Behind Lloyd (69 points) and Bennani (68 points) is PSS Racing’s Néstor Girolami, but the Argentinian was a guest entrant at Paul Ricard and is not expected to completed any further rounds this year.

This means that Team Clairet Sport’s Teddy Clairet is the next closest full-time rival in fourth, on 62 points, following his maiden podium in TCR Europe.

Race 1 pole-sitter Filippi sits fifth in the standings following his third place on Saturday, while Race 2 winner Mike Halder is just four points behind in sixth.

Andreas Bäckman, although unfortunate to miss out on the podium during the weekend, the Target Competition Hyundai driver is only a further six points adrift of Halder in seventh.

The next round of the season takes place on the weekend of 11-13th September at the Zolder circuit in Belgium.