Photo: Jacques Letihon Photographe

Pierre-Yves Corthals and Frédéric Caprasse take Zolder qualifying race win

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DG Sport’s Pierre-Yves Corthals and Frédéric Caprasse won the qualifying race at Zolder, Belgium, for the third TCR Benelux event. The Opel duo made full use of their pole position as Corthals retained the lead at the start and never looked back. Team WRT’s Ronnie Latinne and Maxime Potty came second in their Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR, with Sam Dejonghe and Denis Dupont completing the podium in their WRT SEAT León TCR.

Corthals was never under threat, so much that his advantage at the first round of pit stops was as high as nine seconds. Latinne and Dupont fought for second for most of their first stints, as the Volkswagen driver passed the SEAT on lap six. Amaury Richard was fourth in his VW Belgian Club Golf, leading the Boutsen Ginion Honda of Stéphane Lemeret, who were closely fighting with SEAT’s Francisco Mora and Honda’s Benjamin Lessenes.

The mandatory pit stops and driver changes gave no major shocks at the front of the field, as Caprasse replaced Corthals remaining in the lead ahead of Potty and Dejonghe. It was a disaster for Matt Neal and José Rodrigues however, as both dropped significantly down the order to a distant ninth and tenth as they replaced Lemeret and Mora respectively.

Romain De Leval had to retire his Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR on lap 23 from fifth, while two laps later fellow VW driver Steve Vanbellingen stopped on track with technical issues. An earlier incident between De Leval and Volkswagen stable-mate Didier Van Dalen resulted in no further action warranted by the stewards.

Vincent Radermecker put on a good show in his Volkswagen, going from last to finish seventh as he overtook Rodrigues and Neal.

Caprasse won the race ahead of Potty and Dejonghe. Lesseness was fourth in the #5 Honda Civic TCR, ahead of Edouard Mondron, Didier Van Dalen, Vincent Radermecker, Matt Neal and José Rodrigues.

Based on the fastest lap times set during their stint, Race 1 will have Dejonghe on pole position in the WRT Golf alongside Radermecker. Race winner Corthals will start from fourth. The winning car will start the third race of the weekend from pole position, Caprasse sharing the front row with Volkswagen’s Maxime Potty.