Thed Björk experienced two sides to his weekend in the FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) in Germany, having retired from race two before going on to convert pole position to victory in race three.
The Swede had retired from the second race when avoiding the accident between Gordon Shedden and Gabriele Tarquini ahead of him on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, and he admits that meant he ended up with a weekend of two sides.
Having lost out to team-mate Yvan Muller in Thursday’s first race, despite starting from pole position, Björk was determined not to suffer the same fate in Saturday’s final race of the weekend.
He got off to a strong start and held Comtoyou Racing’s Frédéric Vervisch at bay in race three to become the seventh different race winner after nine races so far.
“That race was a really nice race for me,” said Björk after race three. “I just decided to go for it from the beginning. I had to take Vervisch at the start because my car was set-up for lap time, not top speed.
“I knew the Audi would beat me on the straights, so I just pushed it to the limit on every corner and was in front. I just made the gap to be in front because he really did catch up on the straight – it’s a long, long straight and he was really fast.”
Björk was relieved to avoid a big accident in the second race after taking avoiding action for the incident unfolding ahead of him on the high-speed Nordschleife.
“Today I got to experience two sides again. In the first race I had to stop because Shedden and Tarquini hit each other up on the long straight after Bergwerk and Tarquini was in the middle of the road exactly like Tiago [Monteiro] was two years ago when Yvan hit him straight on.
“I locked all my wheels and hit the barrier on the right but I managed to come in so they could repair my car. But it’s really difficult because the speed is so high and the accidents can be quite severe. Thankfully my team repaired my car and I can go again.
“[There were] a lot of emotions today and I am happy to be able to take a victory because Yvan won one two days ago and for the team this is very important.”