Jimmy Clairet wins final race as Franco Girolami claims his second title

Jimmy Clairet won the final TCR Europe race of the season at Valencia, but all eyes were on Franco Girolami who claimed the title with a sixth place finish.

Viktor Davidovski (Cupra) started from the reversed grid pole position but lost the lead at Turn 2. Davidovski made a mistake and went wide, losing the lead to fellow Cupra driver Clairet.

Audi driver Nicola Baldan was on the move early on in the race and managed to round Monlau Motorsport driver Davidovski on the outside in the run to the final corner on lap three to snatch second place.

The same corner also saw British Cupra driver Jenson Brickley braking too late, dropping down the order after having been involved in the fight for a podium finish.

ALM Motorsport driver Ruben Volt was the next driver to attack Davidovski, snatching third with 12 laps left of the race.

Disaster struck Baldan two laps later as the Comtoyou Racing driver came to a halt on track, bringing the safety car out.

The race resumed with seven laps left as Volt was close behind on race leader Clairet.

Monlau Motorsport driver Girolami gained positions consistently during the race, passing Honda driver Levente Losonczy for sixth place with six laps left and Ignacio Montenegro (Honda) for fifth a lap later.

The safety car was called into action with five laps left as Cupra driver Giovanni Scamardi came to a halt on track.

The race resumed with no major changes and it was not until the last corner of the last lap that Montenegro challenged Girolami for a drag race to the finishing line.

Montenegro managed to snatch fifth place with a margin of 0.4 seconds.

Clairet won the race ahead of Volt and Davidovski while Aurélien Comte secured second place overall after a quiet race to finish fourth.

Girolami’s sixth place means that he is crowned TCR Europe champion for a second time, having claimed his first title in 2022.