Thed Björk leads second consecutive Lynk & Co 1-2 at Vila Real

Thed Björk crowned a successful FIA TCR World Tour weekend for Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, leading home a second consecutive 1-2 for the Swedish outfit on the streets of Vila Real with team-mate Ma Qing Hua.

As the race was about to begin, Viktor Andersson’s woes continued, with the Swede forced to head back into the pits from fourth on the grid due to continuing technical issues and lost a lap on the leaders.

Ignacio Montenegro (Honda) started from the reversed grid pole position but was slow off the blocks and was passed by Ma and Björk.

The first part of the race saw Race 1 winner Yann Ehrlacher coming under hard pressure from the Goat Racing Honda duo of Marco Butti and Dusan Borkovic.

But Ehrlacher was eventually able to pull clear of Butti who instead had team-mate Borkovic right on his rear bumper.

Ma and Björk started to pull away from Montenegro, with the two Cyan Racing drivers swapping places on lap eight, handing Björk the lead.

The troubles continued for the BRC Hyundai drivers as reigning champion Norbert Michelisz suffered an issue on lap 13, heading into the pits from fifth place and dropped down to finish 13th and a lap down on the leaders.

At the chequered flag fell, Björk won the race by half a second ahead of Ma and two seconds ahead of Montenegro.

Cupra driver Aurélien Comte had a quiet race to finish fourth ahead of Mikel Azcona (Hyundai) and Esteban Guerrieri (Honda).

Santiago Urrutia finished in seventh place, followed by Ehrlacher, Borkovic and Girolami.

Butti hit trouble on the last lap, pitting to retire from ninth place.

Ehrlacher continues at the top of the standings on 250 points, 27 more than Guerrieri, 35 points more than Urrutia and 43 points more than race winner Björk.

The next round of the FIA TCR World Tour is scheduled for September 11-13 at The Bend, Australia.