Last weekend, the TCR Eastern Europe season continued at Slovakiaring. The two races delivered two different winners. While Michal Makeš won the opening race, Tomáš Pekař celebrated a triumph in the other one.
Milovan Vesnić took pole position for the opening race of the weekend, ahead of a championship leader Tomáš Pekař, who won both races at the first round at Hungaroring. Michal Makeš had to settle for 3rd place on the grid.
It was Pekař who had the best start. He was followed by Makeš and Sebastian Steibel in 3rd position. The polesitter Vesnić dropped to 4th place. The first lap already saw a race-defining moment as Pekař went wide and let Makeš into the lead. The Czech driver then dominated for the rest of the race and took his first-ever win in the category.
Makeš was joined on the podium by Sebastian Steibel, from the ESET Race Star programme, in 2nd place and Carol Wittke in 3rd position. It was the first podium appearance for both drivers. Tomáš Pekař finished in 5th place as he struggled with understeering. The polesitter Vesnić had to retire following technical issues.
Michal Makeš took his premiere victory in TCR Eastern Europe on Saturday.
The second race of the weekend featured a reverse grid for the TOP 9 drivers from the first race. That gave pole position to Žarko Knego, followed by Dávid Němček and Lukasz Stolarczyk. The championship leader Pekař started from 5th place, while the winner of the first race Makeš was 9th on the grid.
But this time, the race was all about Pekař. The Carpek Service quickly made his way to 2nd place, and he took the lead in the opening lap already, as he used Lukasz Stolarzcyk’s error. After that, Pekař did not let anyone through and he remained in the lead until the end, taking his 3rd victory of the year.
Tomáš Pekař clinched his 3rd victory of the year on Sunday.
Sebastian Steibel finished in 2nd place once again, with Michal Makeš making his way from 9th to 3rd place, adding a podium finish next to his victory.
Milovan Vesnić also had a lot of fun in the second race. While he finished 12th in the opening race of the weekend, he was able to cross the line in 6th position this year. Žarko Knego, who started on pole position, finished in 7th place. Lukasz Stolarczyk had to take an unscheduled pitstop due to technical issues and he finished in 12th position.
Apart from Sebastian Steibel, the ESET Race Star project had two other entries on the grid with Slovak drivers Miro Horňák and Dávid Němček. It was a TCR Eastern Europe debut weekend for both. But they did well. Horňák took 6th and 5th place finishes, with Němček scoring points in both races as he finished in 8th place both times. And on Sunday, he was able to take this result despite being slow at the start of the second race.
Sebastian Steibel had a good weekend.
Ahead of the Round 3 at Poznan, Tomáš Pekař leads the championship by 17 points ahead of Michal Makeš. Sebastian Steibel is now 3rd in the standings, 41 points behind Pekař.