Michal Makeš is on the first place of championship standings after first half of 2021 TCR Eastern Europe season. Tomáš Pekař is second and is losing only nine points to Makeš. Sebastian Steibel holds third position.
The 2021 TCR Eastern Europe season completed its first half with a third round in Poznan, Poland. And it´s Michal Makeš who is in best position after first three race weekends. The Mičánek Motorsport powered by Buggyra driver, who races with TCR car only for the second year, was incredibly consistent in first three rounds. He finished on podium in every race and scored two victories as well. Overall, he collected 123 points and is closest to the championship title from all drivers now.
But remaining three rounds definitely won´t be easy for Makeš. He had to count at least with one strong opponent. It´s his countryman Tomáš Pekař, who races with Cupra Leon TCR car as Makeš this year. He was in really good shape in first half of the season too. The Carpek Service driver scored three victories, so one more than Makeš. But he had also a bad luck. For example, he struggled with understeering and finished only 5th in Race 1 at Slovakiaring. In Race 2 in Poznan, he didn´t finish because of broken half-axle. Now, he is only nine points behind Makeš.
But except for Michal Makeš and Tomáš Pekař, we can find more quality drivers on current TCR Eastern Europe grid. For example, Sebastian Steibel. The German driver, who races with ESET Race Star support this year, is third in the championship standings with 75 points and with three podium results.
But Carol Wittke, Lukasz Stolarczyk or first ever TCR Eastern Europe champion Milovan Vesnić also scored podium and showed they are able to fight for top positions. Wittke shone especially in Race 1 at Slovakiaring with third place and is fourth with 44 points in overall standings. Stolarczyk, who scored second place in Race 2 at Hungaroring, is sixth (40 points) and Vesnić (40 points) is seventh after bad luck in opening races. Vesnić achieved best result in Race 1 at Hungaroring. He was third. But we can´t write off also other drivers, for example, the fifth Tomasz Rzepecki.
The second half of 2021 season will kick off on weekend from 23th to 25th of July in Grobnik, Croatia.
Opening photo: Petr Frýba