Kobe Pauwels charges to race two win at Circuit Paul Ricard

Kobe Pauwels continued to keep his TCR Europe title charge alive after race two at Circuit Paul Ricard, where the Comtoyou Racing driver came from eighth on the grid to claim victory.

At the start, reverse-grid pole-sitter Levente Losonczy held the lead through the first corners, as fellow front-row starter Viktor Andersson lost half a dozen places through the first corners, and Ruben Volt dropped almost to the back of the field from fourth on the grid.

Pauwels, meanwhile, leapt up the order, challenging Viktor Davidovski for second into the first corner from the fourth row of the grid.

Nicola Baldan fought Pauwels off for third for a few corners, as the Belgian instead found himself embroiled in a battle with SP Compétition’s Aurélien Comte.

At the Montréal chicane half way around the opening lap, Davidovski dived inside Losonczy for the lead, but the Aggressive Team Italia driver reclaimed the place at the final corner of the lap, with Pauwels also following past into second.

Losonczy’s reclaimed lead lasted only a few hundred metres, as Pauwels looked to the outside at Turn 1, and a slight touch saw him forced to cut the corner, but emerge in the lead.

The stewards decided the incident required no investigation, and Pauwels was thereafter able to pull clear to claim a fourth TCR Europe win of the season.

Losonczy lost momentum in the move for the lead, allowing both Davidovski and Baldan through, with the latter claiming second a couple of corners later.

For much of the first half of the race, Davidovski held the final podium position, but the North Macedonian racer came under pressure from rival after rival later on.

First, Tom Coronel passed his team-mate for third on lap five, followed by the recording ALM Motorsport Honda of Volt claiming fourth a lap later.

Coronel would then hold third until the chequered flag, meaning the Dutchman preserves his position at the top of the drivers’ championship standings.

Volt took fourth, with Comte claiming fifth after passing Davidovski four laps from the finish.

Race one winner John Filippi brought his Comtoyou Audi home in sixth after following Comte through when the CUPRA racer passed the Audi, with Davidovski taking seventh.

Volcano Motorsport’s Lewis Brown was eighth, with SP Compétition’s Sacha Bottemanne and the second Volcano Audi of Daniel Tkachenko completing the top ten.

Losonczy ultimately finished 12^th and last after making a pitstop on lap seven.

Race results

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	22			Kobe PAUWELS	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	22:34.906	2:14.312	8
2	8			Nicola BALDAN	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	4.012	2:14.508	7
3	34			Tom CORONEL	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	7.455	2:14.521	9
4	127			Ruben VOLT	ALM Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	10	11.176	2:15.078	4
5	76			Aurélien COMTE	SP Competition	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	10	14.304	2:15.294	6
6	27			John FILIPPI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	14.519	2:15.388	10
7	11			Viktor DAVIDOVSKI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	16.708	2:15.738	3
8	39			Lewis BROWN	Volcano Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	17.413	2:15.997	5
9	78			Sacha BOTTEMANNE	SP Competition	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	10	23.625	2:15.444	14
10	7			Daniel TKACHENKO	Volcano Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	32.049	2:16.781	13
11	10			Viktor ANDERSSON	MA:GP	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	10	32.107	2:16.809	2
12	264			Levente LOSONCZY	Aggressive Team Italia	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	2:06.134	2:16.215	1
WD	18			Marco BUTTI	Target Competition	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	–	DNS	N/A	12
WD	62			Dušan BORKOVIĆ	Target Competition	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	–	DNS	N/A	11