Photo: Jacques Letihon Photographe

Norbert Michelisz and Stéphane Lémeret win long race at Mettet

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Norbert Michelisz and Stéphane Lémeret have extended their championship lead after a lights-to-flag victory in the qualifying long race at Mettet, with the Boutsen-Ginion Honda pair defeating Opel rivals Pierres-Yves Corthals by three seconds.

Michelisz took the first stint, while WTCC rival Grégoire Demoustier started alongside him in the Team WRT Volkswagen Golf. Demoustier made a poor start and fell to fifth, with Pierre-Yves Corthals up to second ahead of Denis Dupont in the WRT SEAT.

Demoustier then spun at Mertens and was hit by Stienes Longin’s Milo Racing Volkswagen Golf, with Longin stopping on track with a broken rear-right wheel. Demoustier was able to rejoin, but it took the marshals the best part of ten laps to recover the Golf of Longin.

Aurélien Comte was making good progress in the Peugeot 308, and broke into the top six soon after the restart, after qualifying in 11th position.

Demoustier was the first to pit when the pit window opened after 25 minutes, while Boutsen-Ginion Racing and DG Sport Opel left their drivers out to the last minute, with Michelisz now having built a six second lead over the Astra driver.

Edouard Mondron managed to jump ahead of both WRT’s Sam Dejonghe and the Peugeot 308, now driven by Fred Bouvy, in the pits, but the safety car was called on lap 36 after brother Guillaume crashed out at Findlay, which saw the lead of Michelisz’s co-driver Stéphane Lémeret wiped out.

At the restart, Opel’s Frédéric Caprasse could still do nothing about the Honda, and fell slowly behind, while Sam Dejonghe was still fending off Bouvy’s Peugeot and the Volkswagen of Romain de Leval. De Leval passed Bouvy on an eventful penultimate lap, as the Ferry Monster SEAT of Willem Meijer hit the Honda of Benjamin Lessennes at Saarinen. Meijer was out of the race, while Lessennes was able to continue, but fell to seventh.

Michelisz and Lémeret’s win sees them extend their championship lead to 69.5 points, but with dropped scores considered, the real gap is just 36.5 points, with 100 points still available from the four sprint races, the first of which takes place at 12:50 CET.