Photo: TCR Australia

Rob Huff beats Norbert Michelisz to Sydney night finale win

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Rob Huff won the third and final joint TCR World Tour and TCR Australia race of the weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park, beating title rival Norbert Michelisz by more than four seconds to trail the Hyundai driver by a single point in the championship fight.

Huff made a strong start to beat pole sitter and fellow Audi driver Will Brown in the drag race to Turn 1.

Behind him, team-mate Frédéric Vervisch made contact with a fast-starting Aaron Cameron, sending the Peugeot driver in a wild spin off track.

Melbourne Performance Centre driver Brown meanwhile passed Vervisch into second place but was later found to have jumped the start, with a penalty of five seconds added to his total time after the race.

Vervisch initially also received a penalty for jumping the start, a penalty which was suspended during the race for further investigation after the race instead.

Former TCR World Tour points leader Yann Ehrlacher had a tough race from fifth place on the grid, dropping down to seventh place and found himself in a tussle with title rival Mikel Azcona during the last couple of laps.

Azcona defended hard, with the two going side-by-side for several corners. But it was BRC Hyundai driver Azcona who prevailed, leaving Ehrlacher fuming and had to be held back by his mechanics after the race while trying to confront the Spaniard.

Ehrlacher’s team-mate Ma Qing Hua was right behind and fought hard to keep eighth place from a charging Néstor Girolami.

And the Honda driver managed to edge past Ma in a drag race to the finishing line by just 0.0417 seconds to grab eighth place.

And Ma was involved in another drama a couple of laps earlier when he hit team-mate Ehrlacher who had gotten out of shape at the exit of Turn 1. Ma quickly handed the place back a couple of corners later.

Huff won the race ahead of Brown, who dropped to third because of his jump start penalty, elevating Hyundai driver Michelisz to second place.

Vervisch finished fourth ahead of TCR Australia driver Josh Buchan, Azcona, Ehrlacher, Girolami and Ma. Reigning TCR Australia champion Tony D’Alberto rounded off the top ten for Wall Racing.

Michelisz continues in the TCR World Tour points lead on 327 points while Huff has moved up to second place on 326 points after an impressive Sydney weekend. Ehrlacher is third on 306 points and Azcona fourth on 289 points.

The next TCR World Tour/TCR Australia race takes place at Bathurst next weekend, November 11-12.