TCR World and life

9 PURE ETCR’s inaugural season ended with drama at Pau-Arnos, where CUPRA driver Mattias Ekström recovered after an incident in the final race to secure the Drivers’ title, beating Hyundai’s Jean-Karl Vernay by only four points, while his teammate Mikel Azcona completed the championship podium. In France, the Hyundai Veloster N cars won both the Super Finals, with Augusto Farfus victorious in Pool A and Vernay in Pool B, but this was not enough to prevent CUPRA from clinching the Manufacturers’ championship. At the start of the Pool B final, Ekström knew that fifth place would be enough to become champion, and yet he got mixed up in a tough scrap with Romeo Ferrari’s Philipp Eng that ended with the two of them spinning onto the grass and narrowly being avoided by the rest of the field. Both Ekström and Eng limped into the pits, but only the Swede rejoined after the team had changed the left rear tyre; afterwards it was only a matter of cruising to the end of the seven-lap race to finish fifth, one lap behind, and secure the title.