Photo: Jacques Letihon Photographe

Stefano Comini wins the first sprint race of the TCR Benelux season

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Stefano Comini has claimed the first sprint race victory at Spa-Francorchamps, and first for Comtoyou Racing in the TCR category at their home race with the new Audi RS 3 LMS.

DG Opel driver Fred Caprasse started from pole position and led the way into the first corner, while Comini started fifth in the Audi but was already up one spot past the Boutsen Ginion Honda before the cars got to Eau Rouge.

The Swiss had carved his way through and into the lead by the end of the first lap, with Caprasse running in second ahead of the other Honda of Benjamin Lessennes, while Jean-Karl Vernay was up to fourth in the Team WRT Volkswagen ahead of Giacomo Altoè’s Delahaye Volkswagen.

Qualifying long race winner Guillaume Mondron would soon pass Altoè for firth, while the stewards confirmed that Caprasse would receive a five-secondpenalty post-race for a false start.

The Opel then took the lead on lap five from Comini, but would now need to built a five second margin to take victory, but Comini and Lessennes were still just behind, and the Swiss Audi driver was able to retake the position on the penultimate lap, with Caprasse dropping to third.

Comini went on to take the victory by 1.2 seconds ahead of Lessennes’ Honda, with Vernay promoted to third following Caprasse’s penalty, with Mondron fifth in the Delahaye SEAT.

Team WRT’s Sam Dejonghe worked his way through to sixth ahead of Altoe, while Bas Koeten’s Stan van Oord, WRT’s Matthieu Detry and DG Peugeot’s Kevin Abbring completed the top ten.

Race 2 follows imminently with the grid as per the result of Race 1.