Jurado leads a Milan Compétition 1-2-3 at Jarama

Under sunny skies, the third and final day of action at Jarama saw Anthony Jurado dominate qualifying. The Frenchman claimed his second pole position in as many days. Nicolas Milan finished second-best in the session, while Spain's Alex Royo (Team VRT) and Alex Lahoz (Cotauto Motorsport) deprived Milan Compétition of a 1-2-3 by taking the second row ahead of Marc Guillot. David Pouget (GPA Racing) completed the top six at the end of a session marked by the red flag caused by the off-circuit excursion of Fabien Julia (LR Performance).

At the start, Anthony Jurado controlled the chasing group, now led by Alex Royo. Nicolas Milan dropped back to third place under the pressure of Marc Guillot, whilst David Pouget moved up to fifth place after Alex Lahoz' sluggish start and contact between Jerzy Spinkiewicz and Jordi Palomeras (Team VRT).

After a calm start of the race where the top eight drivers were within four seconds, the action accelerated on lap three with an attack from Alex Royo on Anthony Jurado, with Nicolas Milan and Marc Guillot infiltrating in between the two. There was also a battle in the middle of the field with a collision between Chen Han Lin (Uniq Racing) and Michel Faye (GM Sport) on lap five.  

On the next lap, the battle intensified at the front when Marc Guillot took second place from Nicolas Milan as Alex Royo looked on. Anthony Jurado took advantage of this duel to widen the gap, whereas the on-track battles multiplied while Lydia Sempere (Team VRT) and Juuso Panttila (Chefo Sport) went off and retired.

In spite of the palpable tension throughout the field, the running order remained unchanged, and Anthony Jurado took his second win of the weekend, leading a Milan Competition triple with Marc Guillot and  Nicolas Milan. Spain's Alex Royo finished just off the podium behind the three French drivers. Behind fifth place David Pouget, Jerzy Spinkiewicz won in the Challengers Cup ahead of his rivals Jordi Palomeras and Alex Lahoz.

Quinto Stefana (Milan Competition) was ninth for nearly the entire race on the same circuit he raced on in a Renault 5 GT Turbo 36 years ago, but he lost a lot of ground to Adrian Schimpf (Cotauto Motorsport) on the last lap. Mathieu Lannepoudenx (Milan Competition) finished ninth ahead of the Spaniard, who was received a post-race penalty. His twin brother Alejandro Schimpf (Cotauto Motorsport) was then promoted to tenth place, while René Steenmetz inherited the victory in the Gentlemen Drivers Cup.

CLIO CUP EUROPE

Like on Saturday, Anthony Jurado won in the Clio Cup Europe. With his brace of victories, the Frenchman extends his lead to 16 points over Marc Guillot, who scored his second runner-up result on Sunday. Third today, Nicolas Milan is now three points off the provisional podium of the general classification completed by David Pouget.

Jerzy Spinkiewicz also made it two from two in the Challengers Cup, beating Alex Lahoz and Mathieu Lannepoudenx, now respectively relegated to 22 and 17 points behind the Polish driver. In the Gentlemen Drivers Cup, René Steenmetz took advantage of the incident between Quinto Stefana and Adrian Schimpf at the end of the race to win ahead of the Italian and take the lead in the category. The podium was completed by Stephan Polderman (Chefo Sport), who was initially second before receiving a ten-second penalty for jumping the start.

CLIO CUP SPAIN

In Clio Cup Spain, Alex Royo continued his perfect start to the season with a second win in two races ahead of Alex Lahoz and Jordi Palomeras. Alex Lahoz won the Challengers Cup ahead of Jordi Palomeras and Alejandro Schimpf, whilst Fabien Julia beat Joaquin Rodrigo (Vearsa Sport) and Gabriel Alonso (GPA Racing) to seal his second win in the Gentlemen Drivers Cup.

In the general classification, Alex Royo leaves Jarama with a 28-point lead over Jordi Palomeras et Alex Lahoz, who leads Jordi Palomeras in the Challengers Cup by one point. Meanwhile, Fabien Julia already has a 17-point lead over Gabriel Alonso and Joaquin Rodrigo before the next Clio Cup Spain meeting at Magny-Cours (14-15 May).

The Clio Cup Europe will head to Imola (6-8 May) for round three of the year, which will be round two of the Clio Cup Europe and the start of Clio Cup Italia.

Qualifying 2 - Starting grid - Race 2 - Clio Cup Europe standings - Clio Cup Spain standings