Aurélien Comte leads SP Competition 1-2 in second Chengdu race

Aurélien Comte headed home an emotional 1-2 for SP Competition with team-mate Jean-Karl Vernay in the second FIA TCR World Tour race of the weekend at the Chengdu Tianfu International Circuit in China.

TCR Asia entries Diego Moran and Lo Sze Ho started from the reversed grid front row but both got very slow getaways which allowed Thed Björk to snatch the lead from third on the grid ahead of Comte and Vernay.

Race 1 winner Santiago Urrutia made a lightning start from eighth on the grid to snatch fourth before the end of the first lap.

The two Cupra drivers Comte and Vernay started to reel in Björk and managed to both get past on lap five, with Vernay briefly getting ahead until Comte was let past into the lead on lap 12.

There were team orders at Geely Cyan Racing as well, with Björk letting Urrutia past for third place.

Yann Ehrlacher was all over the back of points leader Mikel Azcona in the fight for seventh place, a battle which the Hyundai driver came out on top from.

Comte won the race just below a second ahead of Vernay while Urrutia was a distant third to score vital points to his championship aspirations.

Björk came home in fourth ahead of Norbert Michelisz and Ma Qing Hua.

Urrutia will start the third and final race from pole position ahead of Ehrlacher, Vernay and Comte, starting at 14:10 local time/08:10 CEST.