Mikel Azcona survives late attack from Thed Björk to Race 3 win

Mikel Azcona withstood hard pressure from Thed Björk during the last couple of laps to win the third and final FIA TCR World Tour race of the weekend at Inje Speedium, his second win of the weekend on the home circuit of Hyundai.

The Spaniard started from pole and made a textbook start to head Björk into the first corner.

Björk’s team-mate Ma Qing Hua meanwhile stalled from sixth place on the grid and dropped all the way to the back of the field.

Disaster also struck local hero Junesung Park who slowed down on the opening lap, heading into the pits with a technical issue from fifth on the grid.

Reigning champion Yann Ehrlacher and his Geely Cyan Racing team-mate Santiago Urrutia both made strong starts from ninth and eleventh on the grid, climbing to fifth and sixth respectively during the first lap.

There was a brief safety car period in the initial stages of the race as Audi driver Jiajun Li came to a halt on track due to a technical issue.

Ma put in a furious attack on Cupra driver Jean-Karl Vernay as the field was released again, trying to barge his way past into eighth place. But the attack was unsuccessful and the Chinese driver had to settle in behind.

Ma got the move completed a couple of laps later as Vernay fell down to ninth.

Race 2 winner Viktor Andersson held fourth place during the first half of the race but was passed by Ehrlacher with some contact on lap eleven, a move which allowed SP Competition team-mate Aurélien Comte past to fifth place.

Björk caught Azcona in the lead with five laps left of the race.

But it was not until the very last lap that Björk managed to get up alongside Azcona at the hairpin.

But that was as close as it got, Azcona managed to stay ahead to win the race by 0.311 seconds over the Swedish driver.

Norbert Michelisz drove a quiet race to finish third, more than ten seconds behind.

Ehrlacher finished fourth with Comte and Andersson right on his rear bumper.

Urrutia was unable to make further ground after his strong start to finish seventh ahead of Ma, Vernay and Diego Moran.

Azcona has further extended his points lead, now heading his team-mate Michelisz by 31 points as Urrutia, who led coming into this weekend, drops to third, 49 points adrift. Björk has moved up to fourth, 70 points behind Azcona.

The next race takes place at the Chengdu Tianfu International Circuit in China on October 16-18.