C1 – Björk victorious, Tarquini takes a little breath

The various contacts and clashes usual in the World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) hardly disrupted Thed Bjork (Hyundai). Saturday on the Ningbo circuit (China), the Swede led the entirety of Race 1 from pole position, to sign his third victory of the season.

WINNER! Thed Björk Well done Thed. P2. @E_Guerrieri P3. Vervisch #WTCR pic.twitter.com/XuEgcWnB3X

— FIA WTCR / Oscaro (@FIA_WTCR) September 29, 2018

The Yvan Muller Racing driver took the opportunity to move up to third place in the general classification. He is accompanied on the podium by Stephen Guerrieri (Honda), the latter having overflowed Frederic Vervisch (Audi) at the start. The latter finished third.

The common thread of this event was the internal fight between the men of Sébastien Loeb Racing. Rob Huff (6th), furious at having been overtaken by his teammate Mehdi Bennani (5th), insisted on getting team instructions from his engineer. The Alsatian team held on and did not prove the Briton right, who in any case did not find the opening on the Moroccan.

Despite a five-place grid penalty for causing a pileup in Slovakia in mid-July, Gabriele Tarquini (Hyundai) quickly erased his ninth place to move up to his initial fourth position. After Race 1, the Italian has a nine-point lead over Yvan Muller (Hyundai, 7th) at the top of the general classification.

Thed Björk is third, 24 points behind Gabriele Tarquini, while Yann Erlacher (Honda, 8th) joins Norbert Michelisz in fourth place, 38 units behind.

Among the other French people involved, Nathanaël Berthon (Audi) qualified fifth and gave up in the first turns due to a collision. Aurelien Panis (Audi) collects the point for 10th place; Aurélien Comte (Peugeot ) avoided the pitfalls to move from 25th to 16th place. John Filippi finished 20th, while Jean-Karl Vernay (Audi) retired.

On Sunday, Race 2 will start at 8:20 a.m. French time and Race 3 will follow at 9:40 a.m.

2018 WTCR standings at Ningbo Race 1: