In the first race at Hunan International Circuit, Aurélien Comte converted his pole position into his second victory of the season leading from lights-to-flag at the wheel of his SP Compétition CUPRA Leon VZ.
In a quite uneventful race, Thed Björk and Norbert Michelisz finished behind him on the podium, with the Swedish driver reducing his gap in the standings from his teammate Yann Ehrlacher – who finished fifth – to 27 points.
The points scored by them secured Lynk & Co Cyan Racing the Teams’ Championship for the third consecutive year.
Raindrops were falling when the race started with Comte making good use of the pole and leading from Björk and Michelisz; behind theme there was a fight for the positions with Ma Qing Hua passing Will Brown who was chased by Ehrlacher.
In lap 2, both Brown and Ehrlacher overtook Ma advancing to fourth and fifth, while up front the top three run away and began to be split by a few seconds from each other.
Behind them, Ma and Mikel Azcona swapped fifth and sixth positions a couple of times.
There were no further changes among the top drivers, while in TCR Asia Benny Santoso was leading ahead of Sean Chang Chien Shang and Diego Moran; then in lap 10 Jiang Nan overtook Moran for the third position.
The race came alive during the last three laps when Ehrlacher attacked Brown for the fourth place. The Australian driver opposed a strenuous defence and the was able to retake the position during the penultimate lap, after Ehrlacher had briefly nosed ahead. They also made side-to-side contact, but Brown resisted once again.
Santiago Urrutia and Néstor Girolami finished in 10th and 9th securing the front row of Race 2 reversed grid.
Race 2 is due to start tomorrow at 12:00 local time (05:00 CET), with Race 3 at 16:40 (09:40 CET).
Race 1
- Aurélien Comte (SP Compétition, CUPRA Leon VZ), 18 laps
- Thed Björk (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03), 3.060
- Norbert Michelisz (BRC Hyundai Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N), 5.348
Championship points
- Y. Ehrlacher, 394 pts; 2. T. Björk, 367; 3. E. Guerrieri, 341
Championship points – TCR Asia
- Chang C.S., 335 pts; 2. D. Moran, 310; 3. B. Santoso, 282
Picture: WSC/Jun Qian Motorsport
