Sepang TCR: Colciago holds off Comini to take debut win
Touring car racing veteran Roberto Colciago converted his pole position into a victory in the first Sepang race, which was his first one in the series.
Roberto Colciago, Honda Civic TCR
The Italian fell behind fellow Honda driver Mikhail Grachev off the line but regained the lead on the opening lap before a safety car stint was triggered by the stationary car of Davit Kajaia.
Following the restart, Colciago came under pressure from Stefano Comini, who had also passed Grachev.
The reigning champion forced his way past at the final turn but a counter attack from Colciago saw him retake the lead a corner later.
Despite putting pressure on Colciago for the rest of the race and exiting the final corner side by side with the leader, Comini had to settle for second.
Soon after the safety car restart, Grachev was under attack from Pepe Oriola, who attempted to recover from a poor start from the front row.
However, one of Oriola's moves left him vulnerable to teammate and points leader James Nash, who snuck past the Spaniard.
The Briton then quickly passed Grachev as well, slightly bunching up the field behind him, which resulted in Grachev being hit and retiring.
After temporarily falling behind Jean-Karl Vernay as well, Oriola put Nash under pressure but it was the Briton eventually taking third.
Vernay finished fifth ahead of B3 Racing duo Dusan Borkovic and Attila Tassi.
The top 10 was completed by the Honda of Kevin Gleason and Seat duo Sergey Afanasyev and Mat'o Homola.
With three races to go, Comini has taken the championship lead from Nash by one point.
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments