Philippe Descombes dominates Sepang Race 2

Philippe Descombes gave ART another race win at Sepang, Malaysia, in the opening round of the TCR Asia Series. The Frenchman retained the lead from the start and never looked back, as team-mate and Race 1 winner Rodolfo Avila failed to start.

As the lights went off the SEAT driver retained the lead ahead of the Honda duo, with Michael Choi ahead of Kenneth Lau. With Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Eric Kwong charging the Civics in the early stages, the Ford Focus of Andy Yan was already in fifth and, while fighting for third at the end of the first lap, was hit by mechanical gremlins again and slowed down to the pits.

At the end of the second lap the two Hondas switched places, with Lau overtaking Choi at the last corner. Very soon however he was disqualified and ordered to stop in the pit lane, moving Eric Kwong up to third.

From then on the race was pretty quiet, with some fights over sixth place between Samson Chan, Liu Lic Ka and Mitchell Cheah. The Ford team did try to send the Focus back on track, but the newly-built car eventually stopped on track and surrendered.

Descombes therefore won the race ahead of Michael Choi’s Honda, with Eric Kwong in third.

Filipe Souza finished fourth ahead of Japanese driver Masahiko Ida, with Samson Chan, Liu Lic Ka and Mitchell Cheah eventually finishing in the order.

Fahrizal Hassan and Chan Siew Hong completed the top ten.

The third and final race of the weekend will start at 14.00 local time.