WTCR Pau: Girolami and Guerrieri claim Honda 1-2, Azcona wins race two

Girolami made a clean getaway from pole position to head his team-mate, who also started from the front row. Yvan Muller started third and completed the podium in his Cyan Racing Lynk & Co, admitting it was “too risky” to make a move on the tight streets and challenge for victory at his home race.

“What a way to start the season,” said Girolami after his sixth victory in the WTCR. “We put together an amazing performance yesterday and we got the job done in the first race. The key thing was the start.

"We managed a start similar to Esteban and I approached the first corner with a margin. After that we were taking care of tyre degradation because at this circuit at this temperature, it can be an issue. I tried to avoid the kerbs as much as I could.”

Reigning double champion Yann Ehrlacher began his defence with fourth place behind his uncle Muller. Starting sixth, he demoted new team-mate Ma Qing Hua from the start, then pounced on Nathanael Berthon’s Comtoyou Audi late in the race after the Frenchman incurred bodywork damage and a puncture by clipping a barrier.

Ma, who did well to outqualify a rattled Ehrlacher on Saturday, lost another place at the start to Attila Tassi’s Honda, but pulled off an opportunistic pass on the Hungarian. He then followed Ehrlacher past Berthon to finish fifth on his debut for Cyan Racing Lynk & Co and in his first WTCR appearance since 2019.

Berthon’s misery was complete when he was nerfed into a barrier by Mikel Azcona’s Hyundai on the same lap Ehrlacher and Ma had passed him. But the Audi driver was the one who was reprimanded because he was judged to be holding up the field while continuing with his puncture.

Mikel Azcona, BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N TCR

Photo by: Hyundai Motorsport

In the partially reversed grid race two, pole position starter Norbert Michelisz moved right and pushed Tassi, with whom he shared the front row, into the pitwall.

As Michelisz slid sideways into the middle of the circuit, the incident triggered a reaction down the pack. Gilles Magnus in his Audi ran into the back of Yvan Muller’s Lynk & Co, while Mehdi Bennani’s Audi suffered broken suspension after contact further back.

The safety car was called upon, with the field led through the pitlane at the end of lap one.

“My start was average,” said Michelisz. “I started to turn for Turn 1 and we touched. It was unfortunate. Sorry. It was not the way to start the season. I would like to see the images from outside, but it was very unfortunate.”

When racing resumed, Santiago Urrutia piled the pressure on a defensive Azcona who had inherited the lead. But the Spaniard kept his cool and began to open up a gap, winning by 3.876s after 21 laps.

“The first race weekend with Hyundai and BRC, so really happy,” said Azcona. “I have to congratulate every single person on the team. They did an awesome job during the whole weekend working so hard. I’m here because of them. Now we must keep working on this line.”

“It was a good start,” said Urrutia. “We showed our pace in free practice, but in qualifying we didn’t quite put it together. But I knew starting inside the top 10 all I had to do was bring it home in the points and on this difficult circuit anything can happen. I was a bit lucky I went to the inside and not the outside at the start, because the crash was quite big in front of me.”

Ehrlacher looked set to follow Urrutia home to finish on the podium, only to pit with a right-front puncture with 12 minutes left on the clock, elevating Ma to a podium and a perfect ending for his first weekend driving for Cyan Performance.

Behind the podium finishers, Berthon made up for some of his disappointment in race one with fourth from seventh on the grid in his Comtoyou Audi, while Guerrieri followed up his second place in the earlier encounter with fifth this time. Muller survived his contact with Magnus to finish sixth.

Race one winner Girolami was seventh, with Rob Huff eighth from 13th on the grid in his Zengo Motorsport Cupra Leon Competicion.

Girolami leads the standings after the first round on 49 points, with Guerrieri seven behind him in second and Azcona one point further back.

WTCR Pau race 1 - 23 laps

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	Nestor Girolami	Honda	32 03.148
2	Esteban Guerrieri	Honda	32'04.387	31'32.387
3	Yvan Muller	Lynk & Co	32'05.462	31'33.462
4	Yann Ehrlacher	Lynk & Co	32'06.139	31'34.139
5	Ma Qing Hua	Lynk & Co	32 09.149	0.000
6	Mikel Azcona	Hyundai	32'09.433	31'37.433
7	Santiago Urrutia	Lynk & Co	32'10.297	31'38.297
8	Gilles Magnus	Audi	32'13.428	31'41.428
9	Norbert Michelisz	Hyundai	32'14.326	31'42.326
10	Mehdi Bennani	Audi	32'14.782	31'42.782
11	Tom Coronel	Audi	32'15.227	31'43.227
12	Rob Huff	CUPRA	32'15.820	31'43.820
13	Daniel Nagy	CUPRA	32'17.830	31'45.830
14	Eric Cayrolle	Audi	32'33.476	32'01.476
15	Tiago Monteiro	Honda	32'33.806	32'01.806
16	Nathanael Berthon	Audi	33'17.929	32'45.929
17	Attila Tassi	Honda	32'04.572	1 Lap
18	Thed Björk	Lynk & Co	32'35.720	6 Laps
View full results

WTCR Pau race 2 - 21 laps

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	Mikel Azcona	Hyundai	-
2	Santiago Urrutia	Lynk & Co	3.876	3.876
3	Ma Qing Hua	Lynk & Co	4.378	4.378
4	Nathanael Berthon	Audi	6.563	6.563
5	Esteban Guerrieri	Honda	7.679	7.679
6	Yvan Muller	Lynk & Co	8.406	8.406
7	Nestor Girolami	Honda	9.168	9.168
8	Rob Huff	CUPRA	9.455	9.455
9	Thed Björk	Lynk & Co	10.147	10.147
10	Tiago Monteiro	Honda	12.235	12.235
11	Daniel Nagy	CUPRA	14.107	14.107
12	Tom Coronel	Audi	14.736	14.736
13	Attila Tassi	Honda	19.798	19.798
14	Eric Cayrolle	Audi	28.208	28.208
15	Yann Ehrlacher	Lynk & Co	55.829	55.829
16	Gilles Magnus	Audi	20 laps
17	Mehdi Bennani	Audi	20 laps
18	Norbert Michelisz	Hyundai	20 laps
View full results