Esteban Guerrieri wins crash-laden first race in China
Campos Racing’s Esteban Guerrieri took his second win of the season is a crash-heavy first race in China, with Volvo’s leading championship challenger Thed Björk taken out in an early collision with the Citroën of Mehdi Bennani.
The race started behind the afety car as persistent rain continued to fall at the Ningbo International Speedpark, with the go-ahead given on lap four.
Frenchman Yann Ehrlacher led from pole position for the opening laps in his Lada Vesta, fighting off the Citroën of John Filippi, with the Polestar Volvo of Nicky Catsburg close behind, but both Filippi and Catsburg would fall behind the Chevrolet of Guerrieri on laps six and seven, as he made his move at Turn 2.
Rob Huff was fighting his way forward in the Münnich Citroën, enjoying a two-lap battle with WTCC returnee Gabriele Tarquini’s Honda, before setting off to close in on Tom Chilton’s Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën.
Race 2 pole-sitter Néstor Girolami pitted with a technical issue with his Volvo early on and remained in the pits for the entire race, while the Volvo mechanics soon as their hands full as championship challenger Thed Björk was in with broken suspension after a collision with the Citroën of Mehdi Bennani on lap seven.
There was further drama as Rob Huff and Tom Chilton came together, with both driver’s Citroëns taking heavy damage. With the two cars stopped on circuit, the safety car was called again, which wiped out Ehrlacher’s lead over Guerrieri.
The race resumed on lap ten, with Guerrieri quickly snatching the lead at his favourite passing point at Turn 2, and going on to take his second win of the season, while Ehrlacher fended off Catsburg’s Volvo for second.
Filippi would lose two more spots to the Hondas of Norbert Michelisz and Gabriele Tarquini, before with Michelisz scoring key points in the championship battle, with the Hungarian now just 13 points behind team-mate Monteiro heading into the second race.
