Thed Björk wins chaotic race two
Thed Björk took victory in FIA TCR World Tour race two at El Pinar after battling his way to the front in a race that had to be restarted after farcical scenes at the start.
Ma Qing Hua had been due to line up in pole at the wheel of his Lynk & Co as he looked to bounce back from race one, where he had ended up back in 16th after contact with Esteban Guerrieri for which he was handed a time penalty.
Ma failed to get away for the green flag lap however, meaning it was Pedro Cardoso on defacto pole but he was one of a number of cars that were slow away from the grid after confusion with the lights system – which appeared to flash yellow rather than green.
Esteban Guerrieri blasted into the lead with Nestor Girolami storming through into second behind him, with Cardoso slipping back to third on the run down to turn one.
Bjork suffered a sideways moment mid-way through the lap following contact from Mikel Azcona before the race was halted and the field brought back into the pits due to the confusion with the lights.
The grid was eventually reset to the starting positions, aside from Ma dropping to the back, with the race then getting underway behind the safety car, leaving Cardoso at the front ahead of John Filippi and Esteban Guerrieri.
Guerrieri however was tipped sideways by Urrutia going through the opening corners, which saw him drop down to sixth behind the Uruguayan, as well as Björk and Nestor Girolami.
Cardoso was able to build a slender lead over Filippi at the front as the Audi driver – who had failed to start race one – was forced to go defensive to keep Urrutia behind. The Lynk & Co driver tried to make a move at the hairpin at the end of the third lap, but that only opened the door for Björk to nip ahead on the exit of the corner and steal the place from his team-mate.
As Cardoso eased away at the front, race one winner Yann Ehrlacher was slipping down the pack, with two slow laps putting him down at the back – with the Frenchman lapping well off the pace of the rest of the field due to an electrical issue.
Filippi continued to keep a train of cars behind as Cardoso extended his lead to more than three seconds, but Bjork eventually managed to draw alongside going into lap ten and was able to slip through before immediately pulling a gap of a second on the Audi as he set off after the leader.
Urrutia was unable to follow Björk past Filippi and instead found himself overhauled by Girolami and Guerrieri, whilst lower down the top ten, Marco Butti ran off track whilst trying to overhaul Azcona and dropped down the order.
Having chased down the leader, Björk made his bid for first at the end of the 13th lap when he dived down the inside at the hairpin, but the Swede then ran wide to allow Cardoso to reclaim the place, whilst the battle behind Filippi continued to rage as Urrutia moved back up into fourth from Guerrieri and Norbert Michelisz – as he cleared Girolami.
Björk finally found a way to get ahead of Cardoso a lap later, with Urrutia making the pressure on Filippi pay when he muscled past the Frenchman at the start of lap 15, with the Audi man also overhauled by Guerrieri in the Honda when he ran off line.
As the clock ticked down to the end, Björk was untroubled at the front as he scored the second win of the weekend for the Lynk & Co squad, with Cardoso able to hold on to take the runner-up spot in the Peugeot and top honours in the TCR South America field.
Urrutia grabbed third for a home podium finish, with Guerrieri, Michelisz and Azcona rounding out the top six having also overhauled Fillipi in the Audi.
Dusan Borkovic came through to seventh in his Honda, with Ma producing a fine drive from the back of the field after his issue at the start to take eighth – with Girolami and Filippi rounding out the top ten.
Ehrlacher would make it to the finish but was the final classified finisher.
The next TCR World Tour race will take place at Zhuzhou in China on October 18-20.
