YMR’s Thed Björk moved up to second overall in the World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) drivers’ standings by taking victory in the third race at Ningbo, his second lights-to-flag win of the weekend.
Björk controlled the entire race, even though he had to make a second start after the race was suspended for 25 minutes at the half-way stage for loose kerbs to be fixed.
It is the Swede’s fourth win of the season, and caps off a near-perfect weekend for the YMR Hyundai team, marred only by Team Principal Yvan Muller retiring from the race after contact earlier on.
Björk had earlier scored pole position in both of the weekend’s qualifying sessions, and taken a dominant win in Saturday’s first race.
“It was a fantastic race from the start, just flying away from the others and having a race by myself,” said Björk. “After the red flag I was just flying away.
“I must be really happy with the team, who work so hard putting the car together all the time. It felt so good, in the window [of performance] all the time and I just had to drive.”
Björk was not bothered about having to re-build his lead due to the race suspension, with the reigning WTCC champion eventually winning the race by almost two seconds.
“I was not so concerned [about the race suspension]. I just tried to keep the same pace, do a good restart and follow it from there. In that flow I had I was not worried. I got fresh tyres as well!”
Björk put his performances in part down to having sampled the circuit in 2017, even though the entire weekend was wet.
“The preparation started last year when I was here when we drove in the rain. That made it easier for me to find the window around the track.”