Julien Briché avoids chaos behind to take Race 2 win and points lead
Julien Briché moved into the TCR Europe series points lead with his third successive Sunday race win of the season in a scrappy, safety car affected encounter.
A number of incidents throughout the field marred what promised to be an intriguing battle between the Peugeot of Jimmy Clairet and pole sitter Dusan Borkovic’s Hyundai.
Borkovic converted well from pole position to lead into La Source for the first time, but had to defend heavily from Clairet’s Peugeot 308TCR down the Kemmel Straight.
Clairet and Borkovic came to blows twice at the safety car restart – brought out to recover the stricken cars of Daniel Nagy and Natan Bihel – with Borkovic being spun out by Clairet as the pair braked for Les Combes.
The Frenchman recovered to finish second behind Briché, with Mat’o Homola completing the podium in the Target Competition Hyundai i30 N TCR.
By the time the safety car pulled in, just six minutes plus one lap remained, but that did not stop the field of 34 cars giving it their all, with multiple drivers under investigation by the stewards post-race for incidents.
Tom Coronel was involved in two of the more dramatic clashes. The Dutchman in the Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR first collided with the Cupra of Stian Paulsen, as both drivers ran deep into Les Combes. The pair slewed across the grass, with Norwegian Paulsen hitting the barriers at the exit of the corner.
Coronel was then spun round by the BRC Racing Hyundai i30 N TCR of Luca Filippi at the top of Raidillon on the final lap, with the former hitting the barrier and rebounding back onto the racing line.
Fortunately, no-one hit the Honda and Coronel was able to make it to the finish.
Despite these incidents, there was however some great on-track racing, with the DG Sport Compétition Peugeot of Aurélien Comte and the Team WRT Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR of Ash Sutton going side-by-side at Eau Rouge in a lively squabble for fifth place.
Sutton prevailed in that tussle but the pair lost out to Andreas Bäckman in the other Target Competition Hyundai, who claimed fourth at the flag, just a fraction behind Homola.
Santiago Urrutia finished seventh after an up-and-down race in the sole WRT Audi RS 3 LMS. The Uruguyan ran closely with Race 1 victor Gilles Magnus – who retired in the closing stages – and tapped the Belgian into a half spin as the pack rounded Bruxelles.
Teddy Clairet made it four Peugeots in the top ten, while Luca Engstler and Luca Filippi completed the top ten.
After changing engine following his heavy qualifying accident, former points leader Josh Files came home 16th, having started from the back of the grid.
Briché heads the standings on 147 points ahead of Magnus on 134 points, with Urrutia third on 123.
The next round takes places at the Red Bull Ring on July 13-14th.
