Buriram TCR: Nash dominates after heavy Morbidelli shunt

The Briton made a fantastic start, moving up to third before a big crash for Gianni Morbidelli neutralised the race, and then picked off Kantadhee Kusiri and Mikhail Grachev for victory.

Nash's victory puts him in the championship lead heading out of Thailand, with teammate and erstwhile points leader Pepe Oriola having his race undone by an early puncture.

The reverse-grid rule made it an all-Russian front row of Sergey Afanasyev and Grachev for Race 2, but Afanasyev struggled off the line, falling back to the pack.

Instead, Kusiri and Nash moved up to second and third, the latter pulling off a crucial pass on Dusan Borkovic.

Morbidelli then also moved past Borkovic, but caught the wet astroturf at Turn 8 and went hard into the wall, demolishing the right front side of his WestCoast Honda Civic.

That necessitated a safety car interruption, and the race resumed on lap four, with Grachev immediately making a massive gap on Kusiri.

Soon, the latter was picked off by Nash at the hairpin Turn 3, and despite Grachev enjoying a lead of almost two seconds at that point, Nash was soon contending for the lead.

On lap 8, Nash made a very late dive down the inside of Turn 3 to force Grachev wide and take the lead, which he would not relinquish for the rest of the race.

The Russian, for his part, did not look to have the pace to run up front, as he immediately came under pressure from Kusiri.

But Grachev would soon get breathing room and was allowed to coast to the chequered as runner-up with a heated battle for the final podium place unravelling behind.

First, Leopard Racing's Stefano Comini pushed Kusiri wide at Turn 3 on lap 11, the duo passed by Comini's teammate Jean-Karl Vernay.

However, all three remained bunched up and, in the next few corners, Borkovic came in charging, the Serbian driver powering through to third place and shoving Vernay off-track.

Borkovic would hang on to the spot from there, holding off Comini for his fifth podium of the season.

Meanwhile, Vernay found himself in another hectic multi-car battle, running alongside Kusiri and Attila Tassi for fifth, only for David Kajaia to pass all of them in one Turn 3 move.

Kajaia took fifth in the end, ahead of Tassi, Afanasyev, Vernay and Kusiri, with Mat'o Homola making up the top 10.

Oriola could do no better than 11th, picking up a puncture in early-race contact and pitting during the safety car.

In the standings, Nash, Oriola and Comini are separated by 10 points with six races to go in the season.