Zandvoort, the Netherlands - South African teenager Sheldon van der Linde bounced back into contention for the Audi Sport TT title after a disappointing Norisring outing with a win and a second at the Dutch round of the series at the weekend.
Seventeen-year-old Van der Linde qualified second for Saturday's Race 1 at the seaside circuit and held that position all the way to the flag. More importantly, he finished ahead of championship leader Dennis Marschall.
On Sunday, however, having made the most of fresh front tyres to grab pole position, he romped away to win by almost 10 seconds, leapfrogging Joonas Lappalainen to move back up to second in the standings, just seven points behind Marschall.
"That was much better," he said afterwards, "and a great relief after the Norisring disappointment a few weeks ago.
"The track is incredible - very special and demanding - but the car was perfect today.
"I was able to apply everything we'd learnt from the data analysis of the previous sessions and we definitely hit the sweet spot on the setup for the second race.
"The important thing is that we ended up in front of Dennis twice this weekend and I'm back into second in the championship chase."
Van der Linde has now posted four race wins from eight starts in his rookie year in the Audi Sport TT Cup; the next round of the series will be run on 9 and 10 September at the Nurburgring, one of his favourite circuits.
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