Thed Björk “as happy as with a victory” on debut podium for Lynk & Co

Thed Björk has said he’s happy as if he’d won the race after scoring a debut podium for the brand new Lynk & Co 03 TCR on its motor racing debut in Marrakech.

Björk started second on the grid, benefitting from an engine change penalty for his team-mate Yvan Muller who had initially qualified in second, and managed to hold on to finish second, despite a close fight with the Münnich Motorsport Honda of Esteban Guerrieri at the start.

It was a strong overall performance for the new Chinese automotive brand, with Andy Priaulx running in third during the early stages until an incident with the Audi of Jean-Karl Vernay, which saw him eventually finish fifth, with Yann Ehrlacher eighth in the #68 entry.

Muller, after being forced to start from last, managed to work his way up eight places to finish 18th, but three places outside of the points.

“I have to so it’s fantastic to be here on the podium,” said Bjork. “I almost feel just as happy as Esteban, as we did it. We qualified really well; I wanted to pass Esteban at the start as you saw, but I know how it goes if I tried to push him too hard.

“After that, I tried to see if he would do a mistake, but this track is very hard to pass…and then I realised that points and a second place in our first race ever in the Lynk & Co 03 would be a great result.”