Kris Richard wins incident-packed Spa-Francorchamps second race

Target Competition’s Kris Richard took his maiden TCR Europe win in an eventful second race at Spa-Francorchamps. The Swiss came home ahead of Peugeot driver Julien Briché, with Maxime Potty completing the podium in his Volkswagen Golf.

The race was dramatic from the word go, when Stefano Comini pulled on the grass right after the lights went out due to an electrical issue. Reece Barr lost the lead, handing it to team-mate Richard. Josh Files was second in his Honda, ahead of Stian Paulsen’s Cupra. The Dane was however overtaken in the opening lap by Potty and put under pressure from WRT’s Jean-Karl Vernay, who had already made up five places from tenth. Meanwhile, former championship leader Dusan Borkovic made contact with Danny Kroes and lost places, dropping down to 12th.

A very entertaining fight for second started straight away, with Josh Files defending hard from the charging pack, which included Potty, Briché, Vernay and Mikel Azcona in his Cupra. There was a series of overtaking moves between them, although Files always maintained second. The safety car was sent out on track due to Attila Tassi stopping out of Les Combes in his Honda due to a puncture, therefore temporarily stopping the entertaining fight and, more importantly, caused race leader Richard to lose his three-second advantage over second-places Files.

At the restart, which is still under investigation, although only regarding car at the back of the field, Richard kept his lead as Josh Files pulled over with an electrical issue. That set Briché free to pursue the lead, with Vernay very close behind. With just two laps to go Briché attacked Richard at Bus Stop, but made contact with the Audi driver in the process, Vernay picking up damage and retiring on the spot.

There was more drama for the Peugeot as Briché and Richard made contact at Les Combes, which sent the 308TCR out on the runoff area at high speed. There were no more moves by the Frenchman, who lost contact in the second sector and failed to attack his rival at the last lap.

Kris Richard won the race ahead of Briché and Potty, who was under pressure by Mikel Azcona in the last few laps but managed to keep the Cupra driver behind him. Stian Paulsen was fifth ahead of M1RA’s Daniel Nagy, with Dusan Borkovic seventh after his first-lap incident. Reece Barr recovered from a bad start and an off at Pouhon to finish eighth, ahead of Danny Kroes. Francisco Mora completed the top ten in his Hyundai.

The results are still sub-judice as several incidents are under investigation, most notably the touch between Briché and Vernay at Bus Stop and between Richard and Briché at Les Combes.