Björk claims his first Kumho TCR World Tour win in Hungary

Thed Björk broke his duck in the Kumho TCR World Tour, driving his Cyan Racing Lynk & Co 03 to a lights-to-flag victory in the second race in the Hungaroring. 

His teammate and yesterday’s winner Yann Ehrlacher, who was on equal points on top of the standings with Norbert Michelisz, completed a cautious race to finish in sixth position. This result means he now has a solo lead, 16 points ahead of Michelisz who lost several laps in the pits after being involved in an incident at the start to the great disappointment of the cheering crowd.

In TCR Europe, Comtoyou Racing’s Kobe Pauwels encored his win from yesterday and closing in on the pair of his own teammates Tom Coronel and John Filippi.

Björk made a better start from second on the grid than pole-sitter Dušan Borković and led. Frédéric Vervisch went around the outside of Borković to move into second place, but coming out of the corner there was contact between Santiago Urrutia and Borković that sent the Serbian driver into Norbert Michelisz, who spun and collided with Viktor Davidovski who was collected by Levente Losonczy. While Borković dropped to P18 and continued, both Michelisz and Losonczy limped the pits; Davidovski’s wrecked Audi was stranded on track, which prompted the Safety Car to be deployed. Racing resumed on Lap 5, with Michelisz having visited the pits and rejoining for one lap during the neutralization, but the damage to the left rear of the car still wasn’t repaired and so had to pit again after just one lap. He rejoined again and eventually finished three laps behind.

After the restart, Rob Huff passed Mikel Azcona for fourth on Lap 5 and then grabbed third from Urrutia on the next lap. Urrutia, had been given a drive-through penalty for causing the incident on the first lap and served his penalty at the end of Lap 6. By then, Huff had moved up into second after a move on his teammate Vervisch. 

The leading TCR Europe driver was Pauwels in seventh place overall, but behind him a battle was raging for P8, with Kevin Ceccon attacking Viktor Andersson on Lap 8 and Tom Coronel close behind the pair. On Lap 9, Coronel passed Ceccon for P9 while Andersson was given a five-second penalty for repeatedly infringing track limits. 

Another battle was developing for the final overall podium place, with Vervisch now coming under attack from Azcona, Néstor Girolami and Ehrlacher. That four-way scrap would last until the very end of the race, with slight contacts between Azcona and Vervisch and Girolami and Azcona on Lap 12. 

Björk took his maiden victory in the Kumho TCR World Tour, with Huff and Vervisch second and third. Pauwels won the TCR Europe race again with Coronel and Ceccon completing the same podium as in Race 1; behind those three, Borković recovered from the Lap 1 incident to finish fourth.

TCR Europe will resume at Le Castellet on 21/23 July, while the Kumho TCR World Tour will move to Latin America for racing at El Pinar in Uruguay on August 18/20.

Hungaroring – Race 2 overall

1. Thed Björk (Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03 FL), 15 laps

2. Rob Huff (Audi Team Comtoyou, Audi RS 3 LMS II), 1.536

3. Frédéric Vervisch (Audi Team Comtoyou, Audi RS 3 LMS II), 7.683

Hungaroring – Race 2 TCR Europe

1. Kobe Pauwels (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS II), 15 laps

2. Tom Coronel (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS II), 5.078

3. Kevin Ceccon (Aggressive Team Italia, Hyundai Elantra N), 7.927

Championship points – TCR World Tour

1. Y. Ehrlacher, 195 pts; 2. N. Michelisz, 179; 3. M. Azcona, 168 

Championship points – TCR Europe

1. T. Coronel, 293 pts; 2. J. Filippi, 249; 3. K. Pauwels, 243 

Picture: WSC Group