Thed Björk dominates the final race of the weekend at Vila Real
YMR’s Thed Björk put on a perfect performance in the final race of the weekend at Vila Real to take his second win of the season, finishing ahead of the BRC Racing Team drivers to complete a Hyundai 1-2-3.
Björk launched into the lead from pole position, while Gabriele Tarquini got the jump on team-mate Norbert Michelisz to slot into second position.
The Swede built up such a lead that when the joker lap opened on lap three, his team informed him to take it without risk, and he rejoined ahead of Tarquini.
The safety car made its first of three appearances on lap five when the Zengo Cupra TCR of Norbert Nagy stopped on circuit.
The race restarted a lap later, but it was just two laps before the safety car was out again after Fabrizio Giovanardi in the Mulsanne Alfa Romeo, who had been harrying the YMR Hyundai of Yvan Muller for tenth, took his joker lap but crashed into the roundabout and stopped with broken suspension.
The race restarted on lap 12 with just three laps left for the bulk of the field to take their joker lap, however no one opted to take it on the opening lap, which proved critical when the safety car was out again when Gordon Shedden stopped with damage in his WRT Audi.
The race restarted with just one lap to go, with the field taking their joker lap at the last opportunity, which allowed the Comtoyou Audi of Frédéric Vervisch and the Boutsen Ginion Honda of Benjamin Lessennes to leap into the top ten as the second and third-placed joker takers.
Björk’s win moves him to fifth in the standings, while Muller still leads the championship, just 22 points ahead of Münnich Motorsport’s Yann Ehrlacher and BRC’s Gabriele Tarquini.
The next round of the World Touring Car Cup takes place at the Slovakiaring on July 14th-15th.
