Teamwork Motorsport’s Jean-Karl Vernay took a comfortable victory in the opening joint TCR Asia – TCR China series race at the Zhejiang Circuit in China, with Kantadhee Kusiri claiming the TCR Asia class victory.
At the start it was Team Thailand’s Tin Sritrai who took the lead, but Vernay managed to get his TCR China Volkswagen Golf back in front further around the lap at the last corner.
Thereafter the TCR International Series regular was completely unchallenged in the race, going on to open up a huge 23-second lead on his way to victory.
Sritrai had been running in second for much of the race, but the Honda driver slowed on lap nine, losing positions to drop him down to sixth, before he slid further down the order in the closing laps and eventually finished in tenth, albeit fourth overall in the TCR Asia class.
Second on the road went the way of NewFaster’s Andy Yan, who headed team-mate Huang Chu Han as Audi completed the podium positions.
Liqui Moly Team Engstler’s Kantadhee Kusiri was the leading TCR Asia driver in fourth, and his class victory extends his championship lead but doesn’t quite give him the win just yet, with the Thai driver needing to secure it in Saturday’s final championship race of the season.
Just behind Beng Bao Wei was Eric Kwong in sixth overall, but the Elegant Racing Team SEAT was actually second in the TCR Asia Series class.
Several drivers were taken out of the race due to on-track incidents, including Samuel Hsieh, who had his TCR China Volkswagen taken out on lap two by the TCR Asia Honda of Lai Wee Sing, who went on to finish down in 16th place as a result.
Jasper Thong retired from the race in the Turn 13 gravel after seemingly making an unforced error, whilst Douglas Khoo pulled his SEAT off the circuit after 11 laps with a mechanical issue.
Race two takes place at 16:30 local time (09:30 BST, 10:30 CEST).
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 31 | Jean-Karl VERNAY* |  |
Teamwork Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 19 | 19 LAPS | 1:34.577 | 1 |
| 2 | 82 | Andy YAN Cheuk Wai* |  |
NewFaster | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 19 | 23.667 | 1:37.032 | 5 |
| 3 | 81 | HUANG Chu Han* | |
NewFaster | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 19 | 24.201 | 1:36.728 | 7 |
| 4 | 2 | Kantadhee KUSIRI |  |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 19 | 26.991 | 1:36.340 | 2 |
| 5 | 9 | DENG Bao Wei* | |
LEO109 Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 19 | 48.741 | 1:37.686 | 10 |
| 6 | 98 | Eric KWONG |  |
Elegant Racing Team | SEAT León TCR DSG | 19 | 1:15.398 | 1:38.397 | 17 |
| 7 | 58 | LO Kai Bong* | |
HE Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 19 | 1:18.117 | 1:38.186 | 13 |
| 8 | 21 | WANG Hao* | |
NewFaster | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 19 | 1:20.929 | 1:38.095 | 14 |
| 9 | 23 | Abdul KAATHIR Mohamed Mustaffa |  |
R Engineering | Honda Civic TCR | 19 | 1:22.212 | 1:37.154 | 9 |
| 10 | 9 | Tin SRITRAI | |
Team Thailand | Honda Civic TCR | 19 | 1:26.116 | 1:36.596 | 3 |
| 11 | 791 | Qi Pei Wen | |
AVM Racing | SEAT León TCR | 18 | + 1 LAP | 1:39.280 | 20 |
| 12 | 32 | Diego MORAN |  |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 18 | + 1 LAP | 1:36.619 | 4 |
| 13 | 62 | Sunny WONG* | |
Teamwork Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 18 | + 1 LAP | 1:36.838 | 8 |
| 14 | 99 | Alex LIU Lic Ka |  |
Elegant Racing Team | SEAT León TCR DSG | 18 | + 1 LAP | 1:37.211 | 6 |
| 15 | 77 | HU Hao* | |
LEO109 Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 18 | + 1 LAP | 1:42.510 | 19 |
| 16 | 39 | LAI Wee Sing | |
R Engineering | Honda Civic TCR | 17 | + 2 LAPS | 1:38.348 | 15 |
| R | 65 | Douglas KHOO Kok Hui | |
Viper Niza Racing | SEAT León TCR | 11 | DNF | 1:38.855 | 16 |
| R | 5 | Jasper THONG Wei Heen | |
Audi Hong Kong | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 8 | DNF | 1:37.321 | 12 |
| R | 66 | CAI Hong Yu* | |
TrackFun-Linky Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 4 | DNF | 1:39.419 | 18 |
| R | 26 | Samuel HSIEH* | |
Teamwork Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 2 | DNF | N/A | 11 |
* Denotes TCR China entry