Mehdi Bennani holds off Aurélien Comte for his first WTCR win at Wuhan

Mehdi Bennani held off a strong charge from DG Sport’s Aurélien Comte to win the second race of the weekend at Wuhan, with Nathanael Berthon scoring his first podium result for Comtoyou Racing.

Bennani led the way at the start as Comte launched his Peugeot 308TCR into second place ahead of front-row starter Ma Qing Hua’s Boutsen Ginion Honda.

There was immediate trouble for Race 3 pole-sitter Gordon Shedden, whose car was in the wall at Turn 3 after contact, but the WRT Audi driver was able to bring his car back into the pits for repairs.

Ma Qing Hua also ran wide and dropped out of the top ten, leaving Oriola in third behind the leading pair at the end of lap one.

Oriola briefly passed Comte’s Peugeot, but the Frenchman was able to dive back ahead of him on lap two, and soon began to break away, leaving Oriola on the defensive against Berthon’s Audi.

Thed Björk had moved his YMR Hyundai up to tenth before he was passed by a recovering Ma on lap two, and then was unceremoniously taken out two laps later by John Filippi, who lost control of his Campos Cupra at Turn 8.

On lap nine, Rob Huff, who’d leapt from 13th to ninth at the start, was then spun out at Turn 12 by Ma Qing Hua and dropped to 11th, with both Filippi and Ma under investigation for these two incidents.

Up front, Berthon made a move on Oriola on lap 14 which started at Turn 8 and lasted all the way around until Turn 10, when he snuck his Audi up the inside and onto the final podium spot.

Meanwhile, Bennani was losing pace and fell back towards Comte’s Peugeot, with the Frenchman flashing his lights at Bennani’s Volkswagen as he closed.

Comte made his move at Turn 10, pushing Bennani’s car wide and taking he lead, but then ran wide at the hairpin at Turn 12, handing the position back, with Bennani taking the win with Comte and Berthon completing the podium.

The best-placed Honda was that of Ma Qing Hua, who eventually finished eighth after a late-race pass on Denis Dupont’s Audi, while Yvan Muller scored the first point for Hyundai all weekend with tenth.

Tarquini still leads the championship on 241 points, with Muller now tied with team-mate Björk for second, while Vernay now moves up to fourth in the championship after a quiet run to fifth in the race, 36 points behind.

Race 3 follows at 17:05 CST (11:05 CEST).