Hungarian Norbert Michelisz lost the TCR World Tour lead to Englishman Rob Huff (Audi RS3 LMS) on Saturday, however he hit back to regain it with the reverse top 10, Race 2 victory on Sunday.
In the Hyundai Elantra, Michelisz crossed the line ahead of Aaron Cameron (Peugeot 308) with Thed Bjork (Lynk & Co) third.
The opening lap was hectic and did no favours for the two leading Supercheap Auto TCR Australia title contenders. Josh Buchan (Hyundai) was shuffled a couple of places on the first lap and more as they commenced the second circuit. But his teammate and points leader Bailey Sweeny was in more strife as he crawled back to the pits with a loose intercooler hose.
Cameron had grabbed the lead away from Michelisz at the start and led him and Vervisch. Then followed Bjork, Huff, Yann Ehrlacher (Lynk & Co), Nestor Girolami (Honda Civic FL5) and Will Brown (Audi) from 14th before he was sidelined after five laps.
For the first three laps, it was Cameron in front, but the Internationals were applying the pressure and ultimately Michelisz and Vervisch passed the Peugeot pilot at the Chase on Lap 4 and 5 in repetitive moves.
The top three remained in that order until the start of the last lap where Vervisch relinquished second to Cameron. Vervisch also let Bjork and Huff through so his teammate Huff could salvage as many points as possible.
Seventh place went to Ehrlacher in front of Race 1 winner Santiago Urrutia (Lynk & Co). After a slow start, Tony D’Alberto (Honda) regathered and pushed through to ninth ahead of Mikel Azcona (Hyundai) who passed Jordan Cox (Peugeot) on the final lap.
Sweeny was forced to do a second stop with a reoccurrence of the hose problem and was deemed to be a non-finisher. Despite placing 12th, Buchan has assumed a 30 point lead in the TCR Australia title fight with one race to go. Cameron is third just five points behind.
