Franco Girolami closes in on title with victory in first Valencia race

Franco Girolami has moved closer to claiming the 2024 TCR Europe title after clinching victory in the first race of the Valencia season finale.

The Cupra driver started second but was able to out-drag pole sitter and title rival Ignacio Montenegro before the first corner.

Trouble hit Lynk & Co driver Viktor Andersson early on as he sat in third place, suddenly slowing down and started to drop down the order before he pitted and retired from the race.

This handed third place to Aurélien Comte, who sits second overall.

The safety car was called into action with five laps left as Giovanni Scamardi parked his Cupra in the gravel trap.

The race resumed with three laps left and while Girolami and Montenegro held their positions comfortably, Comte suddenly found himself under fire in the fight for third place with Santiago Concepción.

The Honda driver managed to get up alongside, but had to settle for fourth as Comte fought back.

There was a multi-car squabble for fifth place that erupted on the final lap as ALM Motorsport driver Ruben Volt drove into the side of Cupra driver Jenson Brickley, sending the Brit off into the gravel.

Girolami won the race by just over a second over Montenegro and just over four seconds over Comte.

Conception was a close fourth ahead of Jimmy Clairet, Felipe Fernández, Ruben Volt and Levente Losonczy.

Girolami’s victory has opened up his gap to 19 points over Comte and 33 points over Montenegro ahead of the final race where there is 40 points left to fight for.

Race 2 starts at 11:55 CEST on Sunday.

Update: Volt was handed a 30-second penalty for the incident with Brickley, dropping him from seventh to 14th.