Buriram TCR: Oriola claims straightforward Race 1 win
Team Craft-Bamboo Lukoil driver Pepe Oriola eased to his fourth victory of the TCR International Series campaign in Race 1 of the round at Buriram, Thailand.
Polesitter Pepe Oriola, Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL, SEAT Leon
TCR media
Oriola, who had taken the championship lead by banking the bonus points for pole on Saturday, led home a Craft-Bamboo 1-2 with fellow title contender James Nash.
The 22-year-old Spaniard's victory was in little doubt after he'd gotten a very good launch off the line, getting up to speed faster than those behind him.
Gianni Morbidelli, who had missed out on pole by just 0.001s, would hang on to second at the start, while Nash went from fifth to third, threading the needle between the two Leopard cars of Jean-Karl Vernay and Stefano Comini.
In the first half of the race, Oriola controlled the gap, although Morbidelli managed to stick within a second of the Spaniard.
The Italian was then picked off by Nash at around halfway point, but the Brit likewise couldn't make up ground to Oriola, with the podium positions remaining unchanged for the rest of the distance.
Comini and Vernay diced for fourth position for much of the race, running side-by-side for a number of corners, only for the reigning champion to eventually prevail.
Local driver Kantadhee Kusiri was a confident eighth, ahead of B3 Racing Team duo Dusan Borkovic and Attila Tassi, with their title outsider teammate Mat'o Homola retiring after a driveshaft failure.
Sergey Afanasyev was muscled out of the top 10 early on, but managed to recover to ninth, with David Kajaia taking 10th.
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