Tom Chilton wins the opening race as title contenders battle hard in Japan
Tom Chilton took his second win of the season at Motegi in the Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën C-Elysée, and threw his name into the championship hat, while all the main championship contenders found themselves caught up in action and contact in a busy first race in Japan.
Chilton launched into the lead at the start from the outside of the front row, while pole-sitter Kevin Gleason slid wide at Turn 1 and lost a number of positions in his RC Motorsport Lada. Gleason’s team-mate Yann Ehrlacher was therefore promoted to second, with championship leader Thed Björk up to third in the Polestar Cyan Racing Volvo.
The other two Volvos soon ran into trouble for incidents further down the order. With Nicky Catsburg starting from 17th and last following his engine change, the Dutch driver was fighting to regain ground, but ran into the back of Honda’s Ryo Michigami on lap three, pushing the Japanese driver wide which earned him a drive-through penalty.
Further up ahead, Néstor Girolami slid wide in his Volvo while in fifth and dropped behind Norbert Michelisz, but an ill-judged attempt to re-pass Michelisz at the final corner saw him push the Honda driver wide and into a spin, with the Hungarian dropping out of the top ten, and was soon also ordered to serve a drive-through penalty.
Michigami was now battling with a struggling Rob Huff in the Münnich Citroën, and half-completed a pass on the Briton on lap six, only to turn himself across the nose and find himself sliding off across the gravel trap.
Michelisz was able to complete a more successful move on Huff a lap later, but that’s as far as the Hungarians recovery would go.
The next focus was the battle for second, as Thed Björk made a lunge on Ehrlacher’s Lada with three laps to go, which unsettled both drivers and allowed the Honda of Esteban Guerrieri through into second.
Björk then made contact with Guerrieri, forcing him into a half-slide but the Argentinian recovered, while Ehrlacher was able to sneak back through into second as the Honda and Volvo drivers battled hard over the next few corners, with Björk deciding to back off and safely finish in fourth.
Chilton won the race 13 seconds clear of Ehrlacher, and leaps to fourth in the championship standings, 1.5 points ahead of Honda’s Norbert Michelisz.
Björk extends his points lead to 15.5 points over Tiago Monteiro, while Catsburg picked up two points with ninth and slowly gains ground in third in the championship, now 13.5 points behind Monteiro.
Race 2 follows at 15:30 JST (7:30 CET), with Michelisz on pole position ahead of Nicky Catsburg and Néstor Girolami.
