Photo: Jacques Letihon Photographe

Frédéric Caprasse closes in the championship fight with Mettet sprint race win

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DG Sport Opel driver Frédéric Caprasse took victory in the second sprint race of the day at Mettet, overtaking Race 1 winner Benjamin Lessennes’ Honda at the start and went on to win by over four seconds.

Caprasse got the jump on Lessennes at the rolling start and swung his Astra TCR into the lead at the first corner, with Lessennes now running just ahead of team-mate Stéphane Lémeret.

The Boutsen-Ginion pair swapped positions on lap four, with Lémeret limiting the damage in the drivers’ championship by crossing the line directly behind his chief rival twice in a row.

Guillaume Mondron made a good start and held fourth in the Delahaye SEAT ahead of team-mate Romain de Leval in the Volkswagen Golf, while Amaury Richard battled from the back of the grid after his driveshaft failure in Race 1 to finish sixth.

Sam Dejonghe was the best-placed of WRT’s drivers in seventh, fighting to keep back Fred Bouvy’s Peugeot 308 in the final stages, with WRT Volkswagen driver Maxime Potty and Ferry Monster SEAT’s Willem Meijer completing the top ten.

Lémeret now leads the championship by a reduced margin of 22.5 points over Caprasse and Corthals.

Corthals takes over the wheel of the Opel Astra TCR for the final sprint races of the day which start at 16:25 CET.

The former WTCC driver will start second on the grid for the first race, but will need to pass Lémeret’s co-driver and pole-sitter Norbert Michelisz in the first race in order to stop the title being wrapped up before the final race of the day.