Yann Ehrlacher extended his lead in the FIA TCR World Tour in China, winning the second race on a damp circuit in Zhuzhou as one of his title rivals Esteban Guerrieri fell by the wayside.
Cyan Racing’s Santiago Urrutia held pole position for the reverse-grid race thanks to finishing tenth in Saturday’s opening sprint, but the Uruguayan was beaten into the first corner by fellow front-row starter Néstor Girolami.
BRC Racing’s Girolami then led the race for the first three laps, but the Argentine was told he must give the lead back to Urrutia after he gained an advantage going off the circuit at the first corner.
Further back, meanwhile, GOAT Racing’s Guerrieri had started from third, but the Honda driver was struggling for grip and lost a handful of positions into the Turn 3 hairpin on the opening lap as he sought the grippiest line and went wide.
Guerrieri pitted for wet tyres on lap three, dropping him down the order, as on lap four Girolami backed off to hand the lead to Urrutia.
However, with his BRC team-mate Mikel Azcona running in third, Girolami then sought to defend from the Spaniard, but as Azcona got ahead, Girolami rubbed the back of his team-mates Hyundai and removed his own front bumper, which bizarrely became stuck to the rear of Azcona’s car.
Two laps later, Azcona decided to pit to have the errant bumper removed, but just as he committed to the pitlane the bumper came off anyway, forcing Azcona to belatedly abort his pitstop and drop four places.
At this stage, Urrutia began to break away from Girolami in second, whilst points leader Ehrlacher had worked his way up to third.
Ehrlacher then passed Girolami for second on lap eight, but by this stage Urrutia had scampered clear, with a ten-second lead.
However, that was removed when Guerrieri stopped on track on lap 11, bringing about a two-lap safety car period, wiping out Urrutia’s huge lead.
When racing resumed on lap 14, Urrutia immediately ceded to Ehrlacher, which left Urrutia in the thick of some fierce battles for second.
Further around the lap, Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk muscled past Girolami, before also passing Urrutia, who lost a handful of places. Björk went heavily defensive from Girolami and Azcona, made contact with Girolami, and Azcona emerged in second.
The final two laps saw many position changes, but Ehrlacher pulled clear, winning his fourth race of the season by over three seconds from Azcona, whilst Björk completed the podium.
Girolami prevailed in fourth in his heavily battle-scarred Hyundai, ahead of SP Compétition’s race one winner Aurélien Comte, who had benefitted from all of the last-lap fights to take fifth.
Urrutia came home in sixth, ahead of HMO Customer Racing’s Will Brown in seventh. His team-mate Ryan MacMillan would have been next, but the Australian went wide at the last corner, and as he rejoined the circuit he clattered into the Honda of Ignacio Montenegro.
Thus, Ma was eighth ahead of Montenegro in ninth, with MacMillan completing the top ten after a five-second penalty for gaining an advantage off the circuit was applied to BRC’s Norbert Michelisz, dropping the Hungarian from tenth to 13th.
Race three is scheduled to get underway at 16:40 local time (09:40 Cet, 08:40 GMT).
Race two result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 168 |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 16 | 33:32.599 | 1:56.579 | 6 | |
| 2 | 196 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 3.361 | 1:57.328 | 4 | |
| 3 | 111 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 16 | 4.184 | 1:57.490 | 9 | |
| 4 | 129 |  |
Néstor GIROLAMI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 6.042 | 1:57.072 | 2 | |
| 5 | 107 | |
Aurélien COMTE | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 16 | 10.681 | 1:57.097 | 10 | |
| 6 | 112 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 16 | 11.534 | 1:56.222 | 1 | |
| 7 | 301 |  |
Will BROWN | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 11.901 | 1:57.773 | 7 | |
| 8 | 155 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 16 | 14.164 | 1:57.758 | 5 | |
| 9 | 123 | |
Ignacio MONTENEGRO | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 16 | 14.439 | 1:57.868 | 11 | |
| 10 | 5 | |
Ryan MACMILLAN | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 15.118 | 1:58.244 | 12 | |
| 11 | 281 |  |
LO Sze Ho | Evolve Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 15.265 | 1:57.885 | 13 | |
| 12 | 217 | |
Victor CHAN Chun Leung | Norris Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 16 | 18.772 | 2:00.449 | 14 | |
| 13 | 105 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 19.812 | 1:57.802 | 8 | |
| 14 | 56 |  |
Benny SANTOSO | Z Speed Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 29.877 | 2:02.631 | 15 | |
| 15 | 297 | |
YANG Haojie | Z.SPEED N | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 31.583 | 2:03.542 | 21 | |
| 16 | 288 |  |
Sean CHANG Chien Shang | RevX Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 16 | 34.432 | 2:03.841 | 16 | |
| 17 | 381 |  |
Reinghbert G. DIWA | Eurasia Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 41.252 | 2:05.117 | 20 | |
| 18 | 86 | |
JIANG Nan | Z.SPEED N | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | + 1 LAP | 2:01.775 | 17 | |
| 19 | 310 | |
WANG Yiming | RevX Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 14 | + 2 LAPS | 2:04.106 | 22 | |
| R | 186 | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 9 | DNF | 1:58.300 | 3 | |
| R | 23 |  |
Diego MORAN | DM23 Ecuador Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 18 | |
| R | 69 | |
Andy LIANG Wenyao | Eurasia Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 19 |