Esteban Guerrieri takes title to wire with win in interrupted race two

Münnich Motorsport’s Esteban Guerrieri claimed a crucial victory in a red-flag interrupted second FIA World Touring Car Cup race in Sepang, taking the battle with BRC Racing’s Norbert Michelisz to the final race.

Conditions deteriorated further after the day’s first race, with rain setting in and the race commencing at dusk in Malaysia. Whilst the majority of the field began on slicks, or a slick-wet combination, Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk declared it ‘too wet for slicks on the front’ and pitted at the end of the formation lap for wets all-around.

At the start, reverse-grid pole-sitter Ma Qing Hua lost out to fellow front-row starter Néstor Girolami, as Guerrieri shot from ninth on the grid up to fourth by the end of the first three corners.

Further around the lap Guerrieri was able to pass Mikel Azcona for third, before also passing Kevin Ceccon for second, after Ma rapidly dropped down the order.

Guerrieri was in second behind his Honda team-mate by the end of the second sector, before an incident at the hairpin brought out the red flags.

BRC’s Nicky Catsburg slid into the Lynk & Co of Yvan Muller, knocking the Frenchman into a spin and eliminating Catsburg, whose car ignited into flames as he re-joined the track with front-right damage.

Although several other cars went off at the same time, they all re-joined the circuit without damage. Nevertheless, the incident stopped the race and a lengthy one-hour delay followed.

With the race resuming as the positions were at the end of sector two, Guerrieri would start the resumed race immediately behind team-mate Girolami, with Michelisz starting in 13^th after he lost ground on the opening lap.

After two laps behind the safety car, the restart on lap four saw the predictable swap between the two Argentine drivers, whilst Michelisz was immediately up to tenth by the end of the lap.

Team Mulsanne’s Kevin Ceccon passed Azcona for third, but the pass failed to stick and the Spaniard held his ground for the final podium position.

Girolami then acted as rear-guard for Guerrieri, who built up a lead of over 12 seconds before the safety car was required again two laps from the end when Attila Tassi stopped on the track.

By that stage, Azcona had muscled past Girolami for second on lap eight, albeit not without contact, whilst the charging SLR Volkswagen of Johan Kristoffersson also got past Girolami a lap later for the final podium place, again with slight contact at Turn 3.

Girolami did hold on to fourth, ahead of the Alfa Romeo of Ceccon in fifth.

Yvan Muller was sixth, his team having made repairs to his car during the long stoppage after the earlier hit from Catsburg, although he dropped out of the title race in the process, having not had the pace to keep up with the front-runners.

Muller was backed up by Yann Ehrlacher in seventh, whilst Michelisz finished in eighth, limiting the damage to his championship lead, which now stands at just ten points heading into the final race of the season.

Completing the top ten were SLR’s Rob Huff and Benjamin Leuchter.

Despite a big fire on his car, Catsburg’s team managed to repair the damage before the race re-started, but he was not allowed to take part due to having caused the red-flag stoppage in the first place.

Race three is scheduled to get underway at the revised time of 20:50 local time (12:50 GMT, 13:50 CET).

Race result

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	86	Esteban GUERRIERI		ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type R TCR	11	1:28:45.146	2:35.452	9
2	96	Mikel AZCONA		PWR Racing	CUPRA TCR	11	1.023	2:37.099	8
3	14	Johan KRISTOFFERSSON		SLR Volkswagen	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	11	1.368	2:36.220	22
4	29	Néstor GIROLAMI		ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type R TCR	11	2.198	2:36.924	2
5	31	Kevin CECCON		Team Mulsanne	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	11	2.313	2:37.225	4
6	100	Yvan MULLER		Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	11	2.500	2:38.616	13
7	68	Yann EHRLACHER		Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	11	3.894	2:38.445	18
8	5	Norbert MICHELISZ		BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	4.498	2:38.697	10
9	12	Rob HUFF		SLR VW Motorsport	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	11	5.033	2:38.712	26
10	33	Benjamin LEUCHTER		SLR Volkswagen	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	11	6.270	2:38.417	21
11	21	Aurélien PANIS		Comtoyou DHL Team CUPRA Racing	CUPRA TCR	11	6.966	2:38.620	14
12	18	Tiago MONTEIRO		KCMG	Honda Civic Type R TCR	11	8.821	2:38.821	16
13	25	Mehdi BENNANI		SLR VW Motorsport	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	11	9.511	2:39.240	23
14	69	Jean-Karl VERNAY		Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	11	10.095	2:38.765	20
15	10	Niels LANGEVELD		Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	11	10.705	2:38.641	11
16	27	Mitchell CHEAH Min Jie		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	11.274	2:39.323	28
17	55	Ma QING HUA		Team Mulsanne	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	11	13.607	2:38.963	1
18	38	João Paulo Lima DE OLIVEIRA		KC Motorgroup	Honda Civic Type R TCR	11	14.408	2:38.550	25
19	8	Augusto FARFUS		BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	14.667	2:40.982	5
20	50	Tom CORONEL		Comtoyou DHL Team CUPRA Racing	CUPRA TCR	11	16.685	2:40.636	17
21	111	Andy PRIAULX		Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	11	17.847	2:39.667	27
22	15	Hafizh SYAHRIN Bin Abdullah		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	18.159	2:40.301	29
23	11	Thed BJÖRK		Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	11	19.074	2:41.669	19
24	65	Douglas KHOO Kok Hui		Viper Niza Racing	CUPRA TCR	11	20.589	2:41.876	30
25	22	Frédéric VERVISCH		Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	11	21.395	2:36.641	3
26	1	Gabriele TARQUINI		BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	1:10.622	2:40.885	6
27	52	Gordon SHEDDEN		Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	9	+ 2 LAPS	2:40.072	15
R	9	Attila TASSI		KCMG	Honda Civic Type R TCR	8	DNF	2:38.938	12
R	37	Daniel HAGLÖF		PWR Racing	CUPRA TCR	5	DNF	2:42.255	24
R	88	Nicky CATSBURG		BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	0	DNF	N/A	7