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22
October
2017

TCR Ibérico – Abreu wins title as Mora crashes

The TCR Ibérico ended at Portimão’s Autódromo Algarve, where - rather unexpectedly - Francisco Abreu (Team Novadriver Volkswagen Golf) clinched the title. In fact, Abreu benefited from the consequences of a crash occurred at the start of the first race that sidelined Francisco Mora (Veloso Motorsport SEAT León) for the rest of the weekend.
Mora had arrived in Algarve with a comfortable leading margin in the standings, but eventually dropped to third, also behind his teammates Rafael Lobato and Patrick Cunha.
The event was also valid as the final round of TCR Portugal that had already crowned Mora as the champion for the second year running.

An incident at the start of the first race eliminated Mora and Manuel Gião (Speedy Motorsport SEAT), while Abreu took the lead from the pole. After a thee-lap safety car period to remove the wrecked cars, Edgar Florindo (Speedy Motorsport SEAT) overtook Abreu, but the latter retook the lead before the end of the lap and pulled away. On the last lap, Patrick Cunha (Veloso Motorsport Audi RS3 LMS) overtook Florindo for second.
Abreu repeated his victory in the second race after a close fight with Florindo in the early stages. Abreu was followed by Rafael Lobato (Veloso Motorsport Audi), while Florindo and Ricardo Leitão (Veloso Motorsport SEAT) were battling for third. However, Lobato was given a drive-through penalty for jump-start, which promoted Florindo and Leitão to second and third.
Abreu took the lead at the start of Race 3, but Lobato overtook him on lap 2. Two laps later Lobato and Abreu made contact and the latter retook the lead. But then it was Abreu’s time to serve a drive-through for the incident with Lobato who inherited the victory. On his maiden appearance in the series, José Cautela (Speedy Motorsport SEAT) took second ahead of Florindo.  
Race 4 pole sitter Cunha made a bad start, which enabled Florindo to take the lead followed by Gião and Abreu. On lap 4, Abreu overtook Gião for second and began chasing the leader. On lap 9, Abreu and Gião swapped positions twice and eventually Abreu finished second, only one tenth behind Florindo, with Gião third ahead of Cunha and João Carvalho (Veloso Motorsport SEAT).

 


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