Photo: Team Thailand

Tin Sritrai hits back to win TCR Asia Race 2 in South Korea

Tin Sritrai bounced back from trouble in Race 1 to win the reversed grid Race 2, overtaking his aggressor from Race 1, Roelof Bruins on lap four and going on to win the race for Team Thailand in the Honda Civic TCR.

Terence Tse started from pole position on the reversed grid in the Roadstar Racing SEAT León ahead of the Engstler Motorsport Volkswagen Golf of Filipe de Souza, but both were passed at the start by the leading pack of drivers from Race 1, with Roelof Bruins making a lightning start in the DSG-equipped SEAT León Cup Racer to move into the lead from fourth on the grid with the three Hondas of Tin Sritrai, Henry Ho and Michael Ho in tow.

Michael Ho spun around the first lap, while team-mate Henry Ho lost ground with an unknown issue, losing 20 seconds and five positions, with Bruins now leading ahead of Sritrai with the Engstler Volkswagen of Andy Yan up to third.

Bruins was lacking the pace he showed at the end of lap one in the early stages, with the lighter but older-spec SEAT passed at the final turn by Sritrai on lap four, with Andy Yan copying the move two laps later to take second.

While Sritrai began to pull away, Yan was never able to build a gap to Bruins, with the South Korean driver keeping the Hong Kong driver in check throughout the remaining laps.

Kevin Tse would finish fourth for Teamwork Motorsport in their Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR with Filipe de Souza fifth in the second-best placed Engstler Volkswagen, while Henry Ho finished sixth for Champ Motorsport, overtaking team-mate Michael Ho in a coordinated pass with four laps to go.

Sritrai leads the championship on 42 points ahead of Bruins on 41, with Andy Yan close behind on 39 heading to the next round of at the Buriram International Circuit on June 12th.