Brutal Fish wins in 2nd round of TCR Malaysia series

Daniel Lloyd won the 2^nd race of the 2^nd round of the TCR Malaysia season, bringing the Brutal Fish team to a victory.

The TCR Malaysia series continued with the 2^nd round of the winter season. And just like in the opening round before, there were 2 entries on the starting grid with experience from the past ESET V4 Cup season – Nico Gruber and Brutal Fish team.

And the biggest story of the weekend revolved around Martin Ryba’s team. Heading into the 2^nd round of the season, the Slovak team led the championship after Daniel Lloyd double 2^nd place finish.

But the British driver was not satisfied, and he showed his speed on Friday already. He set the 2^nd fastest time in the qualifying session, only slower than Luca Engstler. However, the German driver did not enjoy his pole position for long, as he was penalised for an engine change. That put Civic FK7 driven by Lloyd to the 1^st place on the grid.

While the reigning champion was forced to start from the 6^th place, he had no troubles making his way through the field back into the lead. And then he managed to hold this place until the end, with the Brutal Fish driver finishing in the 2^nd place again, for the 3^rd time in a row.

But Lloyd got his chance a bit later. Following reverse grid rules, he had to start the other race from the 6^th place. Yet, he was able to gain place after place and in the final push in the last laps of the race, the British driver overtook Josh Files and took his first victory in the championship. It was also the first-ever win in the series for the Slovak team.

The former TCR UK champion could be happy also about the current championship standings. As Luca Engslter did not finish the race, Lloyd is now 21 points ahead of his nearest rival and he is leading the championship with one round to go. Gilbert Ang, who is in the 3^rd position now, is also losing 21 points to the driver from Huddersfield.

Nico Gruber, another ESET V4 Cup representative, debuted in the series last month in a great style as he took his first-ever win in the 2^nd race of the weekend. But this weekend proved to be a different story as the last year’s 2^nd best driver in the Formula Renault 2.0 series category finished only in the 5^th and 4^th places. He is currently in the 4^th place in the championship standings.

Sepang circuit will host the final race of the season on February 28 and 29.

title photography: TCR Malaysia/Facebook