The WTCR has started its 2022 season in style, recovering for the cause the complex and iconic urban layout of Pau. However, the bar is not lowered as WTCR heads into its second round of the season, as the TCR touring cars in the series will measure their performance at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. The ‘Green Hell’ opens its doors to a contest that after the first date of the year has the Argentine Néstor Girolami as leader. The Spanish Mikel Azcona is one of the candidates to shine on the German track.
To speak of the Nürburgring and its Nordschleife variant is to speak of one of the world meccas of motorsport. At 25,378 meters long, the track is one of the biggest challenges a driver can face, as the track that runs through the forests of the Eifel mountains is an authentic succession of curves, sections of maximum speed, gradient changes and brakingall without margin to make a single mistake due to the proximity of the barriers. The ‘Kärrusell’ curve is one of the most iconic points of a path that is pure magic.
The first round of the WTCR in Pau left the Honda riders at the top of the standings. Néstor Girolami faces the Nordschleife event as the leader of the championship with 49 pointsseven units more than his partner Esteban Guerrieri. The Spanish Mikel Azcona also had a good start to the championshipwinner of the reverse grid race on the French urban track. The Spaniard adds 41 points as the best Hyundai driversince his teammate Norbert Michelisz ended the weekend with an accident at the start of the race that the Navarrese won.
Santiago Urrutia was the best defender of the interests of Lynk & Co. after climbing to the second step of the podium in the second round of Pau. Ma Qing Hua was also on the podium finishing third, which, together with the results of the first race, places the Chinese driver with the same 30 points as the Uruguayan. The opening of the year was not so placid for Yvan Muller and Yann Ehrlacher in an alternative weekend in which the 17 drivers on the WTCR grid added their first points.
On a technical level, the Honda Civic Type R are the only cars on the grid to have compensation weights at the Nürburgring. The gold wing firm’s TCRs will carry an extra 40 kilograms of weight, bringing them to a running weight of 1,325 kilos. The rest of the cars maintain their base weightwhich places the Lynk & Co 03 TCR as the second heaviest car with a minimum weight of 1,315 kilograms. The Hyundai, CUPRA and Audi are below 1,300 kilos.
WTCR 2022 schedules at the Nürburgring Nordschleife
Photos: FIA WTCR