Andy Priaulx made up for a disappointing qualifying performace by taking pole position and victory at the 2nd race at Zolder, leading home fellow Brit Rob Huff and the lead SEAT of Tiago Monteiro.
Priaulx’s job was made easier when Norbert Michelisz, who started alongside him on the front row, had a terrible start and held everyone up, dropping to 8th place as a result.
Surprisingly the first corner was incident free, everyone making it through the first lap without incident. However it wouldn’t stay that way for the rest of the race.
While the overall podium places were pretty much set in stone, there was a frantic battle in the middle of the pack for the Independents class win. Kristian Poulsen lost the lead to Sergio Hernandez at the start, but was still chasing the Spaniard to reclaim the lead. Harry Vaulkhard was fighting with the leading duo until he shed his front-left tyre, dropping him out of contention.
Michel Nykjaer‘s nightmare weekend continued. He was taking far too much kerb on the inside of the chicanes, and it eventually bit him back – spinning out into the gravel trap and limping back to the pits and into retirement.
By now Poulsen had re-passed Hernandez, only to drop behind him once again a lap later. Tom Coronel made the most of the altercation to slip by the Dane for the final point.
There was more last minute changes, as Augusto Farfus‘ attemt to pass Gabriele Tarquini backfired, allowing Michelisz pass for 7th place instead. The battle for 5th in the Independents class got rough as Stefano D’Aste was dropping like a stone down the order. Medhi Bennani saw a chance to pass the Italian when he ran wide, but all he accomplished was running into him and breaking his own steering, retiring before he could make the finish.
Hernandez held on to the independents class victory and 9th overall, while Michelisz was the fastest rookie driver all weekend and took another class win.
