Photo: Jacques Letihon Photographe

Mathieu Detry doubles up at Zolder as title battle closes up

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Mathieu Detry followed up on his Race 1 victory at Circuit Zolder, by winning the second sprint race from pole position in the Team WRT Volkswagen Golf, while with Guillaume Mondron finishing second, the Delahaye Racing driver is now just three points behind Honda’s Benjamin Lessennes in the points standings.

Detry made a good start from pole to lead ahead of Mondron into Turn 1, while Kevin Abbring in the DG Sport Peugeot got the jump on the Boutsen Ginion Honda of Stéphane Lémeret to move into third. Further behind, Stan van Oord stalled his Audi RS 3 LMS at the start and dropped to the back of the pack.

The Dutchman then caught the DK Volkswagen of Jonas de Kimpe for sixth as the top five started to sprint away, with the two making contact on lap three, with van Oord recovering to the pits with damage.

Detry maintained a short lead over the rival Volkswagen of Mondron throughout the race, as the two began to edge away from the Peugeot 308 of Kevin Abbring.

The Belgian went on to win the race, the third for WRT of the weekend, and moves himself and co-driver Maxime Potty to a clear third in the standings, 51 points behind leader Benjamin Lessennes’ Honda.

Mondron’s second place moves the 23-year-old to just three behind Lessennes, going into the next pair of races where the co-drivers take over, with Lessennes at the wheel of the #2 Honda Civic TCR, while Mondron’s Volkswagen will be driven by his new co-driver, Lorenzo Donniacuo.

The third sprint race is scheduled for 14:25 CET.