Photo: ETCC Media

Kris Richard strikes back in Magny-Cours, and ties for title heading to finale

Rikli Honda driver Kris Richard bounced back from his error in Race 1, where he served a drive-through penalty he was never asked to take whilst leading, to lead again and this time take the chequered flag first to secure his fifth win of the 2016 European Touring Car Cup season.

With the reversed top eight, two Super 1600 class cars of Kevin Hilgenhövel and Tomas Koreny started on the front row, but the TCN2 class cars quickly made their way through, with the Lema Racing SEAT León TCR of Fabío Mota and the Rikli Honda Civic TCR of Kris Richard moving straight ahead into the top two into Turn 1.

Richard then dispatched Mota’s SEAT for the lead at the next corner, with Mota now second ahead of the lime green Zengo Motosport SEAT León Cup Racer of Norbert Nagy.

Richard was able to build up a healthy lead while Mota fought to keep the chasing TCN2-specification cars behind, fending off an attack from almost every remaining car in the Super 2000 Trophy class over the next few laps. When Nagy’s charge faded, Pierre-Etienne Chaumat moved up to third and tried his hand to get ahead of the Portuguese driver, but the two made contact near the end of lap two with Chaumat falling back to seventh and last in class.

Petr Fulín was next in line, and the former champion made his move and got past Mota at the end of lap four at Chateau d’Eau, but the Czech was now too far behind Richard’s Honda to be able to challenge for the win.

ASK Lein Racing’s Mladen Lalusic was now up to third and next to battle Mota for the final podium spot, but the two collided at the Adelaide hairpin and both cars were eliminated from the race, promoting Peter Rikli up to third in his Honda Civic ahead of Chaumat’s JSB Competition SEAT León Cup Racer.

The remainder of the race was about this battle, as Rikli defended lap after lap against Chaumat, with the Frenchman unable to get ahead of the Swiss driver, with Rikli scoring his sixth podium of the season.

In the Super 1600 class, Kevin Hilgenhövel in the ETH Tuning Peugeot 207 Sport fought to keep Race 1 winner Tomas Koreny’s Ford Fiesta behind, taking his first win of the season, while already-confirmed champion Niklas Mackschin managed to grab second from Koreny in the final stages as the trio battled together for the second race in succession.

Richard’s Race 2 win now puts him level on points with Petr Fulín on 92 each heading to the final round of the ETCC at Imola, Italy on October 2nd.