Aurélien Comte controls second Zhejian race as Mikel Azcona struggles

Aurélien Comte won the second FIA TCR World Tour race in style, beating Race 1 winner Norbert Michelisz by close to nine seconds.

The SP Competition driver started fifth but soon made his way up into third place behind Geely driver Thed Björk who also made a strong start.

Jean-Karl Vernay headed the field during the opening lap, but Björk was able to get past the Cupra driver for the lead on lap two.

Comte followed suit a lap later and quickly reeled Björk in.

The Frenchman completed the pass for the lead on lap five, quickly pulling up a gap.

BRC Hyundai’s Michelisz was also on the move early in the race, passing Vernay for third on lap six and Björk for second three laps later.

Vernay closed in quickly on Björk and managed to pass for third place, but that joy only lasted briefly for the Cupra driver who made a mistake and went off.

The mistake dropped him down just one place to finish fourth.

Comte crossed the finishing line 8.675 seconds ahead of Michelisz to claim his second win of the season.

Björk was a distant third, with Vernay close behind in fourth.

Santiago Urrutia gained valuable point on title rival Mikel Azcona by finishing fifth.

Azcona opted to go for a mixed set of wet and dry tyres which saw him finishing down in 14th place, more than 1.5 minutes behind race-winner Comte.

The Geely pair of Ma Qing Hua and Yann Ehrlacher also struggled on mixed tyres, finishing down in 11th and 12th.

Lo Sze Ho finished sixth ahead of Diego Moran as the top Asian entries.

This has brought the title fight much closer, with Azcona now leading Urrutia by 17 points and team-mate Michelisz by 28 points.

The third and final race of the weekend starts at 13:40 local time/06:40 CET.