C1 – Guerrieri regains championship lead at Suzuka

Initially, Tiago Monteiro (Honda) was to start from pole position. Gold, the Portuguese was penalized for driving too slowly during qualifying, just like Mehdi Bennani (Volkswagen), Augusto Farfus (Hyundai), Jim Ka To (Honda), Norbert Michelisz (Hyundai) and Aurélien Panis (Cupra). 

The main beneficiaries of this new starting grid were Esteban Guerrieri (Honda) and Frédéric Vervisch (Audi), who moved to the front row. At the start, the Argentinian gave in to an enterprising Niels Langeveld (Audi).

The Dutchman, rookie for the 2019 season with Comtoyou, would subsequently make a driving error. Back in the lead, the first leader of the championship was not going to leave the controls until the checkered flag.

“This is one of the most important victories of my career, rejoiced Esteban Guerrieri. At the start, the Audis being lighter than me, Langeveld overtook me. We touched with Vervisch (abandonment due to puncture. Editor's note), I was afraid of damaging the car but thank God, everything was fine.

The Civic is like a tractor, nothing stops it! Then after Langeveld's mistake, I managed my pace. » Esteban Guerrieri returns to first place in the championship ahead of Norbert Michelisz (13th).

Niels Langeveld kept smiling as he scored his first podium at world level. Tiago Monteiro completes the podium after starting fourth, ahead of the Swedish duo Thed Björk (Lynk & Co) and Johan Kristoffersson (Volkswagen).

The first Frenchman ranked is Jean-Karl Vernay (Audi) in sixth place. There rescue mission of Yvan Muller (Lynk & Co) was carried out smoothly. The Alsatian, third in the championship, only started 27th after a crash in qualifying.

On the small Suzuka circuit (comprising only the first sector of the route F1), Yvan Muller moved up to 11th position and saved some precious points. His nephew Yann Ehrlacher (Lynk & Co) finished just behind (12th), and Aurélien Panis finished 15th. 

WTCR Suzuka 2019 Results – Race 1:

General driver classification: