Pierre-Yves Corthals scores first sprint race victory for the Opel Astra

The Opel Astra TCR has taken its first sprint race victory in competition in any TCR series in the third meeting of the TCR Benelux series at Zolder. Belgian driver Pierre-Yves Corthals led the race from lights-to-flag in the car run by DG Sport Compétition.

Corthals followed up his and co-driver Frédéric Caprasse’s victory in the one-hour qualifying race on Thursday with a strong performance from pole position in Race 3 at Zolder. Corthals held the lead into Turn 1, while Team WRT SEAT driver Denis Dupont snuck up the inside of his WRT team-mate Ronnie Latinne’s Volkswagen Golf into Turn 1 to move up to second.

Championship leader Stéphane Lémeret then passed Amaury Richard’s Volkswagen Golf for fifth position at Turn 5 in his Boutsen-Ginion Racing Honda Civic, with Delahaye SEAT driver Guillaume Mondron despatching Richard for sixth at Turn 1 on the following lap.

Corthals continued to lead the race, while Latinne soon repassed Dupont’s SEAT for second and the top five began to space themselves out. The key battle at this stage was for fifth position, with Lémeret defending to keep the León TCR of Mondron behind him. Mondron’s challenge faded later in the race, and he fell back behind Richard’s Volkswagen in the final laps.

On lap ten, a mistake by Latinne saw him take his Volkswagen out of second position as he went down the escape road, dropping him to eighth position.

Corthals went on to take the win by 5.8 seconds ahead of Dupont, with van de Poele taking the final spot on the podium. Corthals and co-driver Caprasse now move up to third place in the championship, 1.5 points behind the WRT pair of Dupont & Sam Dejonghe, and 65.5 points behind Lémeret.

Race 4 follows imminently, with the grid as the result of Race 3 following a one-lap safety car intervention.