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Australia
Race report

Monza WTCC: Bjork beats Monteiro to Race 2 victory

Volvo's Thed Bjork took victory the second WTCC race at Monza from pole position, making it four different winning manufacturers in the opening four races of the 2017 season.

Thed Björk, Polestar Cyan Racing, Volvo S60 Polestar TC1

Thed Björk, Polestar Cyan Racing, Volvo S60 Polestar TC1

Stefano Arcari

Thed Björk, Polestar Cyan Racing, Volvo S60 Polestar TC1
Thed Björk, Polestar Cyan Racing, Volvo S60 Polestar TC1
Thed Björk, Polestar Cyan Racing, Volvo S60 Polestar TC1
Tiago Monteiro, Honda Racing Team JAS, Honda Civic WTCC
Tiago Monteiro, Honda Racing Team JAS, Honda Civic WTCC

From pole, the Swedish driver lost out to the fast-starting Honda of Tiago Monteiro at the start, but was able to retake the lead at the Parabolica at the end of the second lap.

Bjork then began to pull away from Monteiro, who was defending from Munnich Citroen driver Rob Huff to hold on to second, followed by the Volvo of Nicky Catsburg, the Honda of Norbert Michelisz, and the third Volvo of Nestor Girolami.

Race 1 winner Tom Chilton was running in eighth place before a drive problem forced him to stop at the exit of Ascari, which meant the safety car was deployed and bunched up the field.

When the race resumed, Bjork began to pull away in the lead from Monteiro, who was still defending from Huff and Catsburg, while Michelisz fell behind and was in his own battle with Girolami.

Bjork held on to comfortably take his second victory in the WTCC by 2.174 seconds, with Monteiro taking key points in the championship with second.

Third place for Huff moves the Briton up to joint-fifth in the drivers’ standings.

Catsburg finished right behind in fourth, while on the final lap, Girolami got a run on Michelisz at the Parabolica and pulled alongside the Hungarian to snatch fifth at the finish by just 0.001s.

Mehdi Bennani finished in seventh in his SLR Citroen, with the Chevrolet of Esteban Guerrieri, the Lada of Yann Ehrlacher and the third SLR Citroen of John Filippi completing the top 10.

Race results:

Pos.DriverCarTime/Gap
1 sweden Thed Björk  Volvo 12 laps
2 portugal Tiago Monteiro  Honda 2.174
3 united_kingdom Rob Huff  Citroën 2.779
4 netherlands Nicky Catsburg  Volvo 3.269
5 argentina Nestor Girolami  Volvo 6.180
6 hungary Norbert Michelisz  Honda 6.181
7 morocco Mehdi Bennani  Citroën 9.582
8 argentina Esteban Guerrieri  Chevrolet 11.522
9 france Yann Ehrlacher  LADA 11.877
10 france John Filippi  Citroën 12.077
11 netherlands Tom Coronel  Chevrolet 12.836
12 france Aurelien Panis  Honda 16.637
13 united_states Kevin Gleason  LADA 19.306
Ret hungary Daniel Nagy  Honda 6 laps
Ret  united_kingdom Tom Chilton  Citroën 8 laps
Ret  japan Ryo Michigami  Honda 8 laps

Neil Hudson / TouringCarTimes

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