- He took pole position and victory in the first race, which puts him in the lead of the championship alone with a five-point advantage over his closest rival.
- Viktor Davidovski, driving the other CUPRA León VZ TCR, scored points for the team and demonstrated the car’s good performance.
- “Once again, we were very fast throughout the weekend, on a very difficult circuit where we had not raced for years. The work we did in the private set-up test was key to achieving good results,” says David Simón, Team Manager of Monlau Motul.
- “Both the drivers and the mechanics and engineers were excellent in Brno. We will play everything in the last round in Valencia, but we are confident because we have a very good team and a competitive car,” says Jaime Serrano, CEO of Monlau Motorsport.
Monlau Motul Technical School shined in the fifth and penultimate round of the TCR Europe 2024, held at the iconic Brno circuit in the Czech Republic. Franco Girolami arrived in first place tied on points with his main rival, but pole position , a victory and a ninth place gave him a five-point advantage and placed him in the sole lead. Monlau is third in the team section just seven points behind second.
Viktor Davidovski, at the wheel of the other CUPRA León TCR VZ unit of the Barcelona team, executed a very good drive, but different race incidents meant that he could not materialize his effort in a better position at the end of the race. Despite this, he scored some important points for the team.
The Czech round began on Friday at the Brno circuit with two free practice sessions, followed by qualifying, where Franco Girolami was the fastest, covering the 5,403 metres of the track with a time of 2:12.504, almost five tenths faster than the second, which allowed him to take pole position , earn 10 points and start his way to the tiebreaker at the top of the standings. Viktor Davidovski, meanwhile, stopped the clock at 2:13.980 and placed ninth.
On Saturday it was the turn of the first race, in which Girolami started in a privileged position that he maintained from start to finish after opening a gap on his main rival for the championship, Aurélien Comte, thanks to excellent tyre management. Davidovski had a very good race, but with three laps to go, another rider hit him from behind when he was ninth and made him spin, which relegated him to the back of the grid.
In the second race, held on Sunday, the Isla Verde rider started tenth due to the reverse grid compared to the qualifying result, but this did not intimidate the Argentine, who made a remarkable comeback, with some nice overtaking moves, to cross the finish line in fourth position, just behind his direct rival for the championship. However, a 5-second penalty for overtaking under a yellow flag left him in ninth place. Davidovski finished 13th.
David Simón , Team Manager of Monlau Motul, highlighted the importance of the previous work carried out by the team: “Once again, we were very fast throughout the weekend, on a very demanding circuit where we had not raced for years. The track has a very high level of tyre degradation, it is long and has medium-speed corners, so I think the work we did in the private set-up test was key to achieving good results. Although the penalty cost us a better position, we came out on top, 5 points behind second. Viktor Davidovski also had a good pace, but he was unable to position himself further ahead in the time trial, which left him trapped in the middle of the group, on a track where overtaking is extremely difficult .”
Jaime Serrano , CEO of Monlau Motul, praised the team’s effort and chances of winning the title: “ Both the drivers and the mechanics and engineers were excellent in Brno. We will play everything in the last round in Valencia, but we are confident because we have a very good team and a competitive car, so we will fight until the end. We will go all out to be champions, so now it’s time to prepare well and continue along the same lines as until now .”
Franco Girolami and Monlau Motul arrive as leaders at the last round of the series, which will be held at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia, from 27 to 29 September.
