Kris Richard encores in second Honda 1-2 at Slovakiaring

Kris Richard drove a perfect race to dominate the second head of the FIA European Touring Car Cup at Slovakiaring. The Swiss came home ahead of team-mate Peter Rikli just like in the first race, completing another Honda 1-2. Mladen Lalusic completed the podium in the ASK Lein Racing SEAT, with Nicklas Mackschin taking the S1600 win in his Ford Fiesta.

At the start the Hondas took the lead, with Rikli ahead of Richard, who had to defend from the SEATs of Norbert Nagy, Mladen Lalusic and Fabio Mota in the order. The Krener Motorsport drivers started from the back of the grid, with Petr Fulin ahead of Christjohannes Schreiber.

The leading pack was initially very close, with Igor Stefanovski dropping back a little due to a mistake while attacking Nagy for third. Lalusic eventually went up to third and started attacking Rikli, who was passed by Race 1 winner Richard.

As Lalusic, Nagy and Mota went three wide on the main straight, it was the Czech who managed to take third, while the other two battled it out as Stefanovski took advantage of the fight to close in on the pack. The Lema Racing driver however made a disgraceful move on Nagy, hitting the Hungarian and picking up damage in the process, which pushed him out of the race.

The battles calmed down for a while, until Fulin and Schreiber closed in on the pack towards the end of the race, passing Nagy quite easily and launching themselves to take Mota as well. The S1600 cars were battling it out for the lead, with Ulrike Krafft passed by Niklas Mackschin and trying to claim the lead back.

Fulin’s move was awesome as he passed the slower cars in the grass to stick with Mota, who had lost time lapping the S1600 cars. As a result, the Czech was able to just pip the Portuguese driver to fourth, as the Lema Racing driver had yet another disappointment just at the finish line.

Richard won the race comfortably ahead of team-mate Rikli, with Lalusic completing the podium in a very mature and controlled race. Fulin managed fourth ahead of Mota, with Schreiber in sixth ahead of Nagy and Wolfgang Kriegl.

Mackschin eventually won the S1600 class ahead of Krafft, with Kevin Hilgenhovel completing the podium in his Peugeot 207 Sport.

The new championship leader is now Peter Rikli, who gets up to 30 points in the standings, with Fulin on 29.