Sheldon van der Linde and Stefano Comini lead TCR Benelux after strong weekend

A trio of race victories on Sunday mean Stefano Comini and Sheldon van der Linde lead the TCR Benelux drivers’ standings, despite the pair only being entered for the first race of the season.

After finishing fourth in the qualifying race, Comini went on to win both his sprint race heats on Sunday morning, while van der Linde finished second and first, scoring the team 105 points in total, 36 more than Edouard and Guillaume Mondron in the Delahaye SEAT León.

While Comini’s objective was to prepare himself and the Comtoyou Racing team for the next race of the TCR International Series in two weeks’ time, again at Spa, van der Linde was getting ready for his challenge for the TCR Germany series title, with the championship beginning next weekend at Oschersleben.

“It’s been a really good weekend for us,” said van der Linde to TouringCarTimes. “It’s my first time at Spa, and I really adapted well to the circuit. It’s also a new team for me, and I’d like to say a big thank you to them for the invitation. I think we’ve got a good set-up on the Audi now, and I think it’ll be competitive in TCR Germany as well.

The 17-year-old, whose older brother Kelvin made a one-off appearance at Portimao two years ago in the first TCR International Series season, says the main focus of the weekend was to gather race experience.

“I’ve really learned a lot today. I need to work on my starts a bit before next week, but it’s just about experience really. It was really close touring car racing, to race against a (Rob Huff, a) World Touring Car champion was amazing, everyone pushed really hard. Also, Stefano is a funny character, but he’s really good at what he does and I’ve learned a lot from him as well.”

TCR Benelux provisional standings after Spa

* First driver shown