Photo: TCR Australia

Will Brown prevails again in another chaotic Sydney race

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Will Brown has made it two out of two wins in the joint TCR World Tour and TCR Australia weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park, fighting his way from tenth to victory in another chaotic race.

Honda driver Néstor Girolami started from pole but got a slow start and was overtaken by fellow front row starter Thed Björk into Turn 1.

The two then came together into Turn 2, with Björk going wide and dropping behind Girolami and Peugeot driver Aaron Cameron.

Disaster struck TCR World Tour contender Mikel Azcona early on, having to pit with a puncture following contact on the opening lap.

And there was plenty of contact in the first part of the race, with Lynk & Co driver Yann Ehrlacher receiving a whack from behind from GRM driver Jordan Cox into Turn 2, resulting in a pit stop for new tyres for the Frenchman.

The race ended on lap two for pole sitter Girolami. The Honda driver stopped on track due to transmission damage, bringing the safety car out.

The restart saw action straight away as Björk challenged TCR World Tour points leader Norbert Michelisz for second place into Turn 2. Björk tried to go on the inside with a late move, resulting in contact between the two and a retirement for the Cyan Racing driver due to suspension damage. Michelisz was able to continue after dropping down to fourth place.

This saw Peugeot 308TCR driver Cameron alone in the lead but with a five-second penalty for jumping the start.

And Audi driver Brown soon took over the lead from Cameron as the Peugeot driver made a mistake at Turn 8.

Brown won the race by close to 3.5 seconds ahead of Cameron who was demoted down to eighth place due to his penalty.

Instead it was the Comtoyou Audi duo of Rob Huff and Frédéric Vervisch who claimed the final two podium positions.

Michelisz salvaged an important fourth place finish ahead of the HMO Hyundai duo of Josh Buchan and Bailey Sweeney after a tough fight between the two earlier in the race.

Tom Oliphant secured sixth place for Ashley Seward Motorsport, right ahead of the recovering Cyan Racing duo of Ehrlacher and Santiago Urrutia, who had started back in 22nd place.

Brown has also secured pole for Race 3 thanks to scoring most points from the first two races. Huff will start second, Vervisch third, Michelisz fourth, Cameron fifth, Ehrlacher sixth, Azcona seventh, Sweeney eighth, Buchan ninth and Oliphant tenth.

The third and final race of the weekend starts at 20:00 local time/10:00 CET.