It’s been a long wait, but the fast-paced start of 2022 in the WTCR has been well worth the long months without competition. The World Touring Car Cup has opened the doors to a new campaign in the iconic urban layout of Pau, a setting in which Néstor Girolami and the Spaniard Mikel Azcona have registered their names. Thed Björk’s accident in qualifying and the contact between Norbert Michelisz and Attila Tassi at the start of the race with an inverted grid marked the development of the weekend.
Thed Björk’s strong accident in Q2 defined in some way the result of italthough the Honda and Münnich Motorsport drivers shone with their own light. Néstor Girolami took pole position for the main race, while his teammate Esteban Guerrieri achieved second place. The pole for the inverted cheek, after finishing tenth, went to Norbert Michelisz. However, success smiled at the first, not so to the second after a contact at the start of the second race with Attila Tassi.
With pole position, win in the feature race and seventh place in the reverse grid race, Néstor Girolami is the first leader of the WTCR with 49 points, seven more than Esteban Guerrieri adds after finishing second in the fight for pole position in the first race and being fifth in the second race. For his part, Mikel Azcona occupies third position after avoiding the accident at the start and masterfully winning the race with an inverted grid. The new Hyundai driver adds 41 points.
Santiago Urrutia and Ma Qing Hua are the best Lynk & Co drivers, as they both have 30 points, one more than Yvan Muller. For his part, Nathanaël Berthon is the best Audi driver in the standings with 20 points, while Rob Huff occupies this role for CUPRA with only 12 units. However, the British driver leads the WTCR Trophy as Huff races for the non-factory-backed Zengö Motorsport team. In the WTCR Trophy overall, Huff has 17 points, to Tom Coronel’s 13 and Dániel Nagy’s 12.
Regarding the team classification, the good results of ‘Bebu’ Girolami and Esteban Guerrieri allow Münnich Motorsport to lead the general standings with 91 points. With almost half the number of units, 48, the figure of the BRC Hyundai N team emerges thanks to the victory of Mikel Azcona. For its part, the Cyan Racing Lynk & Co team begins the defense of the title with one point less, as Yann Ehrlacher and Yvan Muller have added 47 units in Pau
Photos: FIA WTCR