Thed Björk stripped of Race 2 podium at Zhuzhou

Thed Björk has been stripped of his podium finish in the second FIA TCR World Tour race at Zhuzhou following a post-race penalty.

The Swede crossed the finishing line in third place but was handed a five-second penalty for contact with Néstor Girolami during the chaotic final laps following the safety car restart.

The penalty drops him one place behind Girolami to fourth place as the BRC Hyundai driver inherits the final podium position.

Race 1 winner Aurélien Comte was also handed a five-second penalty for contact with Santiago Urrutia and Norbert Michelisz on lap 14, dropping him from fifth to tenth.

TCR Australia driver Ryan MacMillan got a ten-second penalty for rejoining the track unsafely on the last lap, dropping him from tenth to 13th.

MacMillan went wide exiting the final corner on the last lap and made hard contact with Honda driver Ignacio Montenegro when rejoining the track, resulting in a broken suspension for the Australian driver.

The changed results following the penalties changes the grid for the third and final race, a grid which is decided through the most scored points throughout the race weekend so far.

Björk has still scored the most points so far and will start from pole position ahead of Comte and points leader Yann Ehrlacher.

Will Brown will start fourth ahead of Mikel Azcona, Norbert Michelisz, Ma Qing Hua, Néstor Girolami and Ignacio Montenegro.

Esteban Guerrieri, who is the sole driver with a shot at the drivers’ title outside of the Lynk & Co Cyan Racing drivers Ehrlacher and Björk, will start down in 12th place behind Lo Sze Ho.