Photo: TCR World Tour

Esteban Guerrieri claims close win over Yann Ehrlacher in Race 2

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Esteban Guerrieri made his way from seventh on the grid to win the second FIA TCR World Tour race in Mexico, surviving a late charge from Yann Ehrlacher.

Hyundai driver Mikel Azcona started from the reversed grid pole position but was swamped into the first corner, with Cupra driver Aurélien Comte emerging as the leader.

The troubles continued for Azcona, with smoke pouring from the back of his Elantra N TCR following Turn 1 contact and dropped down the order to finish 18th.

Guerrieri was soon up into second place and got up onto the back bumper of Comte’s Cupra on lap two.

The Argentinian driver then made the move for the lead on lap three when heading into Turn 1 and quickly opened up a gap.

Lynk & Co Cyan Racing driver Ma Qing Hua had made his way up to third place in the first part of the race from fifth place on the grid, but soon found himself under pressure from team-mates Thed Björk and Yann Ehrlacher.

The Chinese driver moved over to let Björk past on lap five and Ehrlacher on lap eight.

Ehrlacher had the pace on Björk and passed the Swede for third place on lap nine.

The two-time FIA WTCR champion then set his sights on Comte and was close to the fellow Frenchman by lap 14.

Two laps later and Ehrlacher made a late dive into Turn 1, snatching second place from Comte.

Ehrlacher continued his charge and closed in quickly on Guerrieri in the lead and was right on the rear bumper of the Argentinian’s Civic heading out on the last lap.

But Guerrieri managed to just hold on to win by a single tenth over Ehrlacher while Comte was a distant third.

Ma finished fourth ahead of Race 1 winner Björk, while Santiago Urrutia had a quiet race to finish sixth.

Ignacio Montenegro (Honda), who retired in spectacular style from the first race, made his way up from 14th on the grid to finish seventh.

Michael Jourdain Jr was the top TCR Mexico driver in eighth place ahead of Rodrigo Rejón and John Filippi.

The Hyundai drivers had another dreadful race, with Néstor Girolami as their top finisher in only eleventh place while reigning champion Norbert Michelisz was 16th.

The results means that Guerrieri heads the drivers’ championship on 65 points, eight more than Ehrlacher and nine more than Björk.

Guerrieri will start the third race, starting at 17:20 local time/01:20 CEST, from pole position ahead of Björk.