Thed Björk took his second win of the season in the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour in an incident-filled second race at El Pinar, finishing ahead of the PMO Racing Peugeot of Pedro Cardoso, who became the first TCR South America driver to step on the overall podium.
It was Ma Qing Hua who was due to start from pole, but his Lynk & Co failed to get away at the formation lap and was wheeled into the pit lane, leaving Cardoso in the effective pole. A technical issue with the starting lights resulted in a red flag. The race was restarted behind the safety car, with Cardoso leading from John Filippi and Esteban Guerrieri. There was drama at T1 as Guerrieri and Santiago Urrutia made contact, with Guerrieri running wide and rejoining in sixth position. Urrutia dropped behind teammate Björk as the Swedish driver got a good run out of the hairpin and was setting on Filippi who was falling away from race leader Cardoso. On lap 4, there was trouble for Yann Ehrlacher, who slowed out of tenth place and came into the pit lane for repairs, rejoining at the back.
Björk made his move for second place on Filippi at T1 at the start of lap 9 and began to bite on Cardoso’s four-second lead. Urrutia was next to try and pass Filippi, but after running wide at T8, the Uruguayan ended up losing two spots to Néstor Girolami and Guerrieri. Two laps later Guerrieri and Urrutia sandwiched Girolami at T12, as he was caught behind Filippi, with Urrutia reclaiming fourth passing two cars in one move and Guerrieri holding on to fifth.
Up front, Björk was taking one second a lap out of Cardoso’s lead and took first place in lap 14. One lap later, Urrutia and Guerrieri both passed Filippi for third and fourth respectively. Girolami shuffled back behind his teammates Michelisz and Azcona who then passed Filippi in lap 17.
Björk took the win by 1.3 seconds ahead of Cardoso, with Urrutia third followed by Guerrieri and Michelisz. Urrutia was given another 5-second penalty for the collision with Guerrieri during the first lap and so he dropped to fourth behind the Argentine.
Cardoso was the clear winner in the TCR South America field, while Juan Ángel Rosso was second, finishing 12th overall, with Norberto Fontana one place behind on his first appearance with the Squadra Martino-run Honda Civic.
In the TCR World Tour, Guerrieri has recovered key points, while Michelisz’s fifth place means that the Hungarian leaves with an extended margin of 25 points clear of Guerrieri, with Björk back up to third, 27 behind the leader.
In the TCR South America standings, Cardoso and Rosso are equal on 248 points, with Raphael Reis still third, 33 points behind.
The Kumho FIA TCR World Tour now heads into a two-month break before resuming at the Zhuzhou circuit in China on October 18/20.
El Pinar – Race 2
- Thed Björk (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03 FL), 22 laps
- Pedro Cardoso (PMO Racing, Peugeot 308), 1.281
- Esteban Guerrieri (GOAT Racing, Honda Civic Type R FL5), 4.410
Championship points – TCR World Tour
- N. Michelisz, 242 pts; 2. E. Guerrieri 219; 3. T. Björk, 215
Championship points – TCR South America
- P. Cardoso, 248 pts; 2. J.Á. Rosso, 248; 3. R. Reis, 215
Further information and images @ www.fiatcrworldtour.com
Picture: TCR South America/Hernán Capa
