Photo: WTCR

Thed Björk wins dramatic final race at the Nürburgring

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Thed Björk has won the last race of the weekend at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, while YMR team-mate Yvan Muller’s third place means the Frenchman moves into the lead of the championship standings.

Björk held the lead at the start of the race, cutting across the circuit to cover off the Audi RS 3 LMS of Comtoyou Racing’s Frédéric Vervisch, while Yvan Muller barged his way past Norbert Michelisz’s Hyundai to move up into third.

Race 2 winner Esteban Guerrieri was making fast progress, passing the Boutsen Ginion Honda of Benjamin Lessennes and quickly closed on the BRC Hyundai of Norbert Michelisz, shoving the Hungarian wide at Aremberg, which quickly copped the Argentinian a ten second time penalty.

Björk continued to lead the way a safe distance from Vervisch’s Audi by the time they got to the last straight at Döttinger Hohe.

The action kicked up at the start of lap three, with Vervisch again failing to mount a charge on the straight and instead going wheel-to-wheel with Björk through the first sequence of corners, but failed to get ahead of Björk’s Hyundai.

Yann Ehrlacher then slowed out of fourth, with Huff briefly promoted one spot, but the Brit was immediately under attack from Guerrieri who barged his way past into fourth, with Huff soon showing signs of a problem with the Volkswagen losing pace.

Huff was passed by Benjamin Lessennes’ Honda and the Audi of Jean-Karl Vernay, before he was then collected by the Hyundai of Norbert Michelisz, with both drivers crashed out and into retirement, with their cars narrowly missed by the following Volkswagen and Honda of Mehdi Bennani and Tom Coronel.

Björk held on to claim the win, just under a second ahead of Vervisch, with Muller completing the podium in third, nine seconds behind.

Muller’s podium moves him into the lead of the drivers’ standings, 19 points clear of Gabriele Tarquini, whose Race 2 damage meant he was unable to start Race 3.

Thed Björk is up to third in the standings, with Michelisz in fourth, with Hyundai drivers occupying the top four places in the standings heading to next week’s race meeting at Zandvoort.