Thed Björk charges up in the standings after Portugal victory

YMR Hyundai driver Thed Björk has launched to fourth in the championship, battling back from disaster on Saturday when his car was heavily damaged in the crash instigated by the two SLR Volkswagens ahead of him.

It was a weekend where few drivers scored highly. The 2017 WTCC champion scored nothing on Saturday with a DNF in Race 1, and was unable to progress from tenth in Race 2 scoring just one point, but pole position and victory in Race 3 on Sunday netted him another 35 in his fully rebuilt Hyundai i30 N TCR.

“The team did a fantastic job,” said Björk. “They repaired the whole car all through the night and worked all night. The first lap in Q1 they were cheering, it was so fantastic. I had a great feeling all day and forgot about the big accident. It was such a nice car, unbelievable. I had the speed. It was a tough weekend in many ways. I can only be happy to win, but I am also happy to be here in Vila Real because the people here are fantastic.”

“Many teams this weekend have been working really hard with the cars and getting them out on track, so it was not only us. So many cars were damaged, so everybody has done a fantastic job.”

While Björk was fast on Sunday, the only driver to have set a sub-two minute lap around the 4.79km circuit in a TCR-specification car, the Swede didn’t have the pace against the Volkswagens, which missed Sunday’s activity.

“In qualifying (Saturday) I just slipped out of my set-up window in the car,” exlained Thed “Then I got the car back to where I wanted with the set-up even if it was completely rebuilt. For me, that was the biggest difference. I also managed to get it in the window for the race. It was such a big difference in temperature. I just nailed it. It’s not so often you nail the set-up exactly perfect, but when you do it is such a nice feeling.”