Photo: Jacques Letihon Photographe

Kevin Abbring takes his first sprint win of 2017 at Mettet

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Kevin Abbring won the second sprint race of the day at the Circuit Jules Tacheny at Mettet, taking the lead in his DG Sport Compétition Peugeot 308 on lap 11 from Team WRT’s Sam Dejonghe to secure his first sprint race victory of the 2017 TCR Benelux series season.

Dejonghe had taken point from third on the grid in his Team WRT SEAT León TCR at the start, and led the way on the first lap ahead of the Delahaye Racing Volkswagen Golf of Giacomo Altoè, while pole-sitter Lorenzo Donniacuo was down to sixth in the Bas Koeten Racing Audi RS 3 LMS.

Altoè was soon passed by Abbring’s Peugeot on lap two, and a battle for the victory raged on, with the two drivers never pulling clear from the rest of the pack.

Dejonghe was able to hold off Abbring’s 308 until lap 11, when Dejonghe retired from the race, with Abbring assuming the lead and beginning to pull away in the nimble Peugeot from Altoè’s Golf GTI TCR.

Abbring won the race just 1.8 seconds clear of Altoè, who picked up vital points for co-driver Guillaume Mondron in the drivers’ championship battle, while Stéphane Lémeret finished third in the Boutsen Ginion Honda, helping ensure the points deficit to Mondron in the standings for his co-driver Benjamin Lessennes was minimised.

The #52 Team WRT Volkswagen pair of Mathieu Detry and Maxime Potty slipped further back in the title fight with Mathieu Detry crossing the line in fifth.

Guillaume Mondron now leads the championship on 330 points, 18 clear of Benjamin Lessennes as both drivers take the wheel of their cars for the third sprint race of the day which gets underway at 16:50 CET.

Aurélien Comte will start that race from pole position, with the Frenchman now just 30 points behind in the standings.