Michelisz inherits victory at The Bend thanks to Azcona’s penalty
Norbert Michelisz was declared the winner of the first Kumho FIA TCR World Tour Race at The Bend after his BRC Hyundai fellow driver Mikel Azcona was handed a five second penalty for jump start.
Azcona had led the whole race from the pole, but a minimal move on the grid meant he was notified of the penalty after a few laps. He tried to push to make up for the penalty and nearly succeeded, but under the chequered flag his leading margin ahead of Michelisz was short of two thousandths of a second.
Luckily for him, the Spaniard retained the second position, eighth tenths ahead of Yann Ehrlacher who has managed to further stretch his leadership in the standings to 45 points over Esteban Guerrieri.
TCR Australia champion Josh Buchan finished a brilliant fourth after a daring passing move on Thed Björk.
At the start, Azcona led from Michelisz, Ehrlacher and Björk; in lap 2, both Buchan and Montenegro overtook Björk advancing to fourth and fifth. Santiago Urrutia had dropped at the back of the field after stalling on P11.
Soon Race Control informed that Azcona would pay a five-second penalty for false start, as well as Aurélien Comte, Brad Harris and Urrutia.
In the second half of the race, focus was on Azcona pushing to stretch his lead over the five seconds, but failed.
After the race, Montenegro also received a five-second time penalty for pushing Björk, which demoted the Argentine youngster behind Björk and Ma.
Race 1
- Norbert Michelisz (BRC Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N), 13 laps
- Mikel Azcona (BRC Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N), 0.0024
- Yann Ehrlacher (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03), 0.8301
Championship points
- Y. Ehrlacher, 280 pts; 2. E. Guerrieri, 235; 3. T. Björk, 229
Picture: WSC/Jun Qian Motorsport
