WTCR has decided to maintain the compensation weights applied at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, even if the German event was not raced due to Goodyear tire problems. Covered in the wording of the new regulations that establish the application of these ballasts based on the fast times and/or results of the last two events and in the exemption to the rule that has already been applied in Germany, the ballasts applied at the Hungaroring will be identical to those applied at the second round of the championship.
Thus, the Honda Civic Type R TCRs under the management of the Münnich Motorsport and Engstler Motorsport teams will carry maximum ballast that the regulations allow at the Hungaroring, so Esteban Guerrieri, Néstor Girolami, Tiago Monteiro and Attila Tassi will have to dealing with being 40 kilograms overweight in their cars after the strong performance of the Honda TCRs in the first weekend of competition at the Pau-Ville street circuit. The rest of the TCR remain at their baseline performance weight.
It is surprising that there have been no adjustments of any kind among the rest of the TCR based on the results of the qualifying session at the Nürburgring, even if the performance shown had no real projection in the race. With everything, the second-generation Audi RS 3 LMS TCRs performed remarkably well in qualifying, so much so that Gilles Magnus and Mehdi Bennani finished in first and second position. Although from Comtoyou Racing some type of ballast was expected, German cars will not have to carry any additional weight in the third round of the WTCR.
Thus, the Honda Civic Type R TCR repeats as the heaviest car on the grid with a minimum total execution weight, once the 40 kilograms of ballast have been applied, of 1,325 kilos. At the same time, the Lynk & Co 03 TCR continues as the second heaviest car of the contest with a minimum execution value of 1,315 kilograms. As has happened in the first two dates of the season, the TCRs of both brands are the only ones that exceed the threshold of 1,300 kilos of execution weight.
In the central point of this weight table is the Hyundai Elantra N TCR with 1,275 kilos, an execution weight that should allow Mikel Azcona to fight for important things in the Hungarian event. For its part, both the CUPRA León Competición and the Audi RS 3 LMS TCR start under equal conditions with 1,265 kilograms as the lightest vehicles in the competitionat least when it comes to the weekend at the always complex Hungaroring circuit.
Photos: FIA WTCR