Photo: TCR Asia

Kantadhee Kusiri takes lights-to-flag victory in Sepang Race 1

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Kantadhee Kusiri led from start to finish to take the opening TCR Asia victory of the 2017 season.

Behind the runaway Thai driver, Diego Moran and Tin Sritrai completed a Volkswagen clean sweep of the podium.

From pole position, Kusiri made the perfect getaway to lead Volkswagen team-mate Diego Moran into the first corner, while further back, Eric Kwong’s SEAT speared into the pit wall, following contact with one of the Audis.

This prompted a lengthy safety car period while marshals cleared Kwong’s car from the circuit. Moran had initially dive-bombed down the inside of Kusiri into the Turn 9 hairpin, but ceded the place after having made the move under yellows.

When the safety car finally came in, Kusiri immediately built a gap to Moran and established a healthy 1.2 second lead two laps into the restart. Moran, while comfortable in second, could not trouble Kusiri and settled for second, some ten seconds adrift at the flag.

The R Engineering Honda of Lai Wee Sing , who, along with team-mate  Abdul Kaathir, were was stripped of second and fourth place qualifying times respectively, made a lightning start off the line, gaining six places to run third.

Despite his strong pace on Saturday, Lai spent much of the race defending heavily from the Volkswagen of Tin Sritrai.

The pair battled tooth and nail for the final spot on the podium with Sritrai gaining under braking but the Honda utilising its superior straight-line speed to keep ahead.

Sritrai eventually found a way through in the closing stages, pulling off a courageous move down the inside of Turn 9.

Lai tried to fight back down the main straight and got alongside the Thai driver, but was unable to find any more opportunities and finished just under two seconds back in fourth.

17-year-old Jasper Thong impressed on his debut in the Audi RS 3 LMS. The Hong Kong driver qualified fourth and ran a solid race, consistently dropping his lap times to finish a credible fifth at the end.

The second race of the day follows at 14:30 MYT (7:30 CET).