WTCR Japan: Kristoffersson wins as Guerrieri holds points lead
Johan Kristoffersson stormed to his second World Touring Car Cup victory in the final race at Suzuka, as Tiago Monteiro forfeited second to boost Honda stablemate Esteban Guerrieri's points lead
Sebastien Loeb Racing driver Kristoffersson was beaten off the line by a fast-starting Monteiro, who appeared to have sealed the lead.
But Kristofferssons stayed on Monteiro's bumper through the first corner, then muscled his Volkswagen Golf GTI up the inside of the Honda Civic Type R driver to reclaim first.
An early safety car kept the leading pack together, but Kristoffersson soon pulled clear of the pursuing Hondas and was only denied a winning margin of five seconds by the deployment of the safety car for a second time on the final lap.
Guerrieri was gifted third at the start when fellow second-row starter Mikel Azcona stalled, but spent the majority of the race behind Monteiro while he and his KCMG team queried whether Kristoffersson's pass to reclaim the lead had been legal.
Race control did not indicate this would be investigated at any point, though, and Monteiro finally allowed Munnich Motorsport driver Guerrieri through on the antepenultimate lap.
Monteiro should have claimed third from there, but a bizarre turn of events meant he instead finished fourth.
While it was initially unclear how he had been classified behind the Alfa Romeo Giulietta of Kevin Ceccon, replays showed Monteiro cutting across the grass at the final corner behind the safety car after initially committing to the pitlane.
He was able to repass the leading Cyan Racing Lynk & Co 03 of Thed Bjork, but did not catch up to Ceccon's Alfa before the chequered flag.
However, both Ceccon and Monteiro received post-race penalties - Ceccon for contact while passing Rob Huff, and Monteiro for his pitlane incident - that dropped them to sixth and 10th respectively.
That opened the door for Bjork to claim the final podium spot ahead of Gabriele Tarquini, while Andy Priaulx - who was involved in a controversial race-one clash with Nicky Catsburg - moved up to fifth ahead of Ceccon and Huff (Volkswagen Golf GTI).
Guerrieri's second place moved him back into the points lead, after he had briefly been overtaken by BRC Racing driver Norbert Michelisz - who won Sunday morning's first race from the reversed-grid pole position.
Michelisz first moved across to block second-place starter Huff on the approach to the first corner, running the Volkswagen driver into the pitlane exit in order to secure an early lead.
Michelisz, who was shown a black and white driving standards flag for that action, gradually eased into a one-second lead in the first half of the race, but Huff came back at him late on and spent the closing laps within four tenths of the Hyundai driver.
Huff's Volkswagen did not have enough grunt to challenge Michelisz, though, allowing the Hungarian to claim a fourth win of the season - the biggest one-season tally he has managed in his World Touring Car career.
Michelisz's team-mate Tarquini completed the podium in race two, having also resisted intense pressure from Ceccon.
Ceccon spent the majority of the race in Tarquini's slipstream but his best chance came on the penultimate lap as he moved to the outside on the approach to the first corner.
While he was able to get his nose ahead of his Italian compatriot, Ceccon was tapped out wide by Tarquini, who was then able to hold the position to the finish.
Bjork also finished fifth in that encounter, a pair of results that moved him ahead of team-mate Yvan Muller for third in the drivers' standings.
Race two result - 24 laps
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Norbert Michelisz | BRC Squadra Corse | Hyundai | 22m01.538s |
2 | Rob Huff | SLR VW Motorsport | Volkswagen | 0.293s |
3 | Gabriele Tarquini | BRC Squadra Corse | Hyundai | 8.205s |
4 | Kevin Ceccon | Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo | 8.531s |
5 | Thed Bjork | Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co | 11.102s |
6 | Tiago Monteiro | KCMG | Honda | 11.330s |
7 | Johan Kristoffersson | SLR Volkswagen | Volkswagen | 11.699s |
8 | Mikel Azcona | PWR Racing | Cupra | 12.114s |
9 | Jean-Karl Vernay | WRT | Audi | 12.883s |
10 | Esteban Guerrieri | Munnich Motorsport | Honda | 18.072s |
11 | Nestor Girolami | Munnich Motorsport | Honda | 19.580s |
12 | Benjamin Leuchter | SLR Volkswagen | Volkswagen | 19.773s |
13 | Frederic Vervisch | Comtoyou Audi | Audi | 19.958s |
14 | Yvan Muller | Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co | 20.134s |
15 | Yann Ehrlacher | Cyan Performance | Lynk & Co | 20.367s |
16 | Andy Priaulx | Cyan Performance | Lynk & Co | 20.741s |
17 | Ryuichiro Tomita | Audi Hitotsuyama | Audi | 21.025s |
18 | Nicky Catsburg | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai | 21.517s |
19 | Aurelien Panis | Comtoyou Cupra | Cupra | 22.517s |
20 | Gordon Shedden | WRT | Audi | 26.168s |
21 | Augusto Farfus | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai | 28.366s |
22 | Tom Coronel | Comtoyou Cupra | Cupra | 29.493s |
23 | Ma Qinghua | Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo | 30.037s |
24 | Attila Tassi | KCMG | Honda | 32.744s |
25 | Ritomo Miyata | Audi Hitotsuyama | Audi | 32.902s |
26 | Daniel Haglof | PWR Racing | Cupra | 33.112s |
27 | Mehdi Bennani | SLR VW Motorsport | Volkswagen | 33.504s |
28 | Jim Ka To | KC Motorgroup | Honda | 52.139s |
- | Niels Langeveld | Comtoyou Audi | Audi | Retirement |
Race three result - 30 laps
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Johan Kristoffersson | SLR Volkswagen | Volkswagen | 30m07.581s |
2 | Esteban Guerrieri | Munnich Motorsport | Honda | 3.070s |
3 | Thed Bjork | Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co | 11.063s |
4 | Gabriele Tarquini | BRC Squadra Corse | Hyundai | 11.715s |
5 | Andy Priaulx | Cyan Performance | Lynk & Co | 12.545s |
6 | Kevin Ceccon | Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo | 12.586s |
7 | Rob Huff | SLR VW Motorsport | Volkswagen | 13.104s |
8 | Norbert Michelisz | BRC Squadra Corse | Hyundai | 13.864s |
9 | Jean-Karl Vernay | WRT | Audi | 14.838s |
10 | Benjamin Leuchter | SLR Volkswagen | Volkswagen | 18.942s |
11 | Frederic Vervisch | Comtoyou Audi | Audi | 19.252s |
12 | Nestor Girolami | Munnich Motorsport | Honda | 19.770s |
13 | Yvan Muller | Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co | 19.952s |
14 | Nicky Catsburg | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai | 20.340s |
15 | Tiago Monteiro | KCMG | Honda | 20.394s |
16 | Attila Tassi | KCMG | Honda | 22.087s |
17 | Aurelien Panis | Comtoyou Cupra | Cupra | 23.476s |
18 | Mikel Azcona | PWR Racing | Cupra | 24.001s |
19 | Yann Ehrlacher | Cyan Performance | Lynk & Co | 26.812s |
20 | Gordon Shedden | WRT | Audi | 27.669s |
21 | Jim Ka To | KC Motorgroup | Honda | 40.961s |
22 | Augusto Farfus | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai | 51.068s |
- | Ryuichiro Tomita | Audi Hitotsuyama | Audi | Retirement |
- | Daniel Haglof | PWR Racing | Cupra | Retirement |
- | Niels Langeveld | Comtoyou Audi | Audi | Retirement |
- | Ma Qinghua | Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo | Retirement |
- | Mehdi Bennani | SLR VW Motorsport | Volkswagen | Retirement |
- | Tom Coronel | Comtoyou Cupra | Cupra | Retirement |
- | Ritomo Miyata | Audi Hitotsuyama | Audi | Retirement |
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