Comte wins again, as the title comes down to Ehrlacher vs Björk
Aurélien Comte clearly enjoys winning races and after taking a lights-to-flag one in yesterday’s first race he happily encored today in the last of the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour weekend in China, that was all for French drivers with the Marseillaise being played three times.
Behind him, Thed Björk and Yann Ehrlacher finished once again on the podium (13 to 11 for the Frenchman so far); their results also means that the title fight has become a family affair between them who are now split by 34 points, with 75 on offer in the seasons finale at Macau on November 13/16.
And seems very appropriate that Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, that was crowned Teams’ champion yesterday, has secured both titles in China.
Björk and Comte filled the front row, with Ehrlacher and Will Brown in the second; Björk pushed Comte towards the pit wall and took the lead, but the Frenchman reacted and started to attack the leader in every corner until passed him before the end of lap 1.
Ehrlacher was running third, while Brown who had made a poor start dropping to sixth began to put the pressure on Michelisz and eventually muscled his way through in lap 3. Two laps later Brown advanced to fourth as he overtook Girolami.
In lap 7, Montenegro stopped to the inside of the last turn with a broken front suspension, and the safety car was deployed. Racing resumed in lap 10, Comte was able to pull away from Björk, while Ehrlacher defended the third place from Brown. Further behind, the BRC trio of Néstor Girolami, Norbert Michelisz and Mikel Azcona ran ahead of the Cyan Racing cars of Santiago Urrutia and Ma Qing Hua.
In lap 11, something broke in Michelisz’s car and he dropped from fifth to eighth.
Up front, Comte went to take his second win of the weekend from Björk, while Ehrlacher managed to keep Brown at bey to finish third. In the last part of the race, Azcona’s and Girolami’s pace faded and them too were passed by Urrutia and Ryan MacMillan.
In TCR Asia, Moran overtook Santoso for the lead; then Santoso collided with Chang and dropped to fourth behind Jiang Nan and Yang Hao Jie. Santoso tried to regain one place and made contact with Yang, then he eventually overtook Yang to complete the podium.
Race 3
- Aurélien Comte (SP Compétition, CUPRA Leon VZ), 17 laps
- Thed Björk (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03), 1.219
- Yann Ehrlacher (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03), 2.297
Championship points
- Y. Ehrlacher, 446 pts; 2. T. Björk, 412; 3. E. Guerrieri, 345
Picture: WSC/Jun Qian Motorsport
