Photo: Jacques Letihon Photographe

Jaap van Lagen wins shortened Race 4 as Tom Coronel crashes out

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Jaap van Lagen won a curtailed final race of the day at Zandvoort, with the race finishing behind the safety car after a late lap incident for Boutsen Ginion Racing’s Tom Coronel, who crashed out with a puncture at the final corner on lap eight.

Van Lagen had started from pole position in the Certainty Racing Audi RS 3 LMS, but lost the lead into the first corner to the DG Sport Compétition Peugeot 308 of Aurélien Comte.

Comte was fighting hard to keep the Audi behind, defending on lap two as van Lagen tried for a run around the outside at Tarzan. One lap later, van Lagen opted to divebomb down the inside at the same corner, grabbing the lead and started to run away.

Comte was now running in a safe second, while Coronel was a few seconds behind, defending from Mika Morien’s Bas Koeten Audi RS 3.

Aurélien Panis’s strong run in Race 3 couldn’t be replicated in Race 4, as the Frenchman crawled into the pits with a problem on lap three, but would rejoin two laps down.

The race was uneventful until lap eight, when Morien made a move down the inside of Coronel, but it was clear the Dutchman was struggling with a going-down tyre, as he slid hard into the barriers on the exit and bounced across the track.

He was narrowly avoided by championship leader Guillaume Mondron’s Delahaye Volkswagen, while the other Volkswagen of Maxime Potty overcorrected to avoid and hit the barrier on the inside next to the pit wall, and was forced to retire.

With six minutes to go, it was impossible for the marshals to recover Coronel’s car and repair the barriers in time before the finish, with van Lagen winning the race under the safety car ahead of Comte and Morien.

Guillaume Mondron leaves Zandvoort with the lead of the standings on 159 points, 45 points clear of Giacomo Altoe, with Honda’s Benjamin Lessennes four more behind, with all three moving ahead of the absent pair of Stefano Comini and Sheldon van der Linde.

The next round of the series is at Zolder in Belgium in two weeks’ time.