Mehdi Bennani claimed victory in the Opening Race for the World Touring Car Championship on the streets of Macau, as Honda’s title hopeful Norbert Michelisz crashed on the penultimate lap and caused the race to be red-flagged early.
At the start of the race, Sébastien Loeb Racing’s reverse-grid pole-sitter Bennani moved into an immediate lead, with the ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet of Tom Coronel slotting into second in what was a relatively orderly first few laps, in light of the carnage that had come beforehand in the Macau GT race.
Bennani never looked troubled at the front and was able to open up a near two-second advantage over the first seven laps of the race, giving the Moroccan his first win on the streets of Macau and the sixth of his WTCC Career.
Second for Coronel gives the Dutchman his first podium of the season, whilst Honda’s Ryo Michigami took third to secure his first-ever podium – and the first-ever podium for a Japanese driver in the WTCC.
Volvo’s Thed Björk secured fourth – having passed RC Motorsport’s Kevin Gleason for the position on the third corner of the first lap – and he held position for the rest of the race to keep his championship lead intact.
The main drama in the race came on the penultimate lap when Michelisz, running in fifth and chasing down Björk, made a mistake at Police Bend and clipped the inside barrier, sending him into the walls on the outside and blocking the circuit.
The race was immediately red-flagged, after team-mate Esteban Guerrieri and others ploughed into the stricken Civic.
The incident did not necessarily spell disaster for Michelisz though, who was still classified in fifth behind Björk. That, combined with out-qualifying the Swede on Friday, means that the gap between the duo remains the same in the championship standings.
Guerrieri was classified in sixth, having followed his team-mate for much of the race, ahead of independent Citroën duo Rob Huff and Tom Chilton in seventh and eighth, the latter having looked aggressive as he tried to pass his fellow Brit to no avail late in the race.
Volov’s Nicky Catsburg passed Gleason on lap five and secured ninth, whilst the American had to settle for the final point in tenth after slipping back six positions over the course of the race.
SLR’s John Filippi just missed out on the points in 11th in his repaired C-Elysée, ahead of the second RC Motorsport LADA of Yann Ehrlacher in 12th, who failed to make any progress in the short race.
Likewise Polestar’s Néstor Girolami, forced to start from the back end of the grid due to an engine change, could only manage a point-less 13th.
WTCC returnee for the weekend Ma Qing Hua made up three positions in his SLR Citroën, but the Chinese racer was stymied by his poor grid position and finished the race in 14th.
All starters finished the race, with Kin-Pong Clerebold Chan having withdrawn early in the weekend due to illness.
The Main Race takes place at 10:45 CST (02:45 GMT, 03:45 CET) on Sunday.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 25 | T | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 5 | 5 LAPS | 2:27.549 | 1 |
| 2 | 9 | T | Tom CORONEL |  |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 5 | 1.952 | 2:27.834 | 2 |
| 3 | 34 | Ryo MICHIGAMI |  |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 5 | 3.265 | 2:27.830 | 3 | |
| 4 | 62 | Thed BJÖRK |  |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 Polestar | 5 | 3.627 | 2:27.853 | 6 | |
| 5 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 5 | 4.577 | 2:27.605 | 8 | |
| 6 | 86 | T | Esteban GUERRIERI |  |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 5 | 5.379 | 2:27.778 | 5 |
| 7 | 12 | T | Rob HUFF |  |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 5 | 6.635 | 2:26.469 | 9 |
| 8 | 3 | T | Tom CHILTON | |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 5 | 8.068 | 2:27.329 | 7 |
| 9 | 63 | Nicky CATSBURG | |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 Polestar | 5 | 10.688 | 2:28.844 | 11 | |
| 10 | 24 | T | Kevin GLEASON |  |
RC Motorsport | LADA Vesta WTCC | 5 | 12.040 | 2:28.934 | 4 |
| 11 | 27 | T | John FILIPPI |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 5 | 13.946 | 2:29.004 | 10 |
| 12 | 68 | T | Yann EHRLACHER | |
RC Motorsport | LADA Vesta WTCC | 5 | 14.592 | 2:28.969 | 12 |
| 13 | 61 | Néstor GIROLAMI | |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 Polestar | 5 | 18.512 | 2:29.875 | 15 | |
| 14 | 30 | T | MA Qing Hua |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 5 | 18.683 | 2:27.303 | 17 |
| 15 | 99 | T | Dániel NAGY | |
Zengő Motorsport Kft | Honda Civic WTCC | 5 | 25.074 | 2:30.880 | 14 |
| 16 | 66 | T | Zsolt Dávid SZABÓ | |
Zengő Motorsport Kft | Honda Civic WTCC | 5 | 37.025 | 2:31.959 | 13 |
| 17 | 4 | T | MAK Ka Lok |  |
RC Motorsport | LADA Vesta WTCC | 5 | 46.075 | 2:35.092 | 16 |
| 18 | 44 | T | Po Wah WONG |  |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 5 | 2:00.220 | 2:45.995 | 18 |
| NS | 88 | T | Kin-Pong Clerebold CHAN | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | – | DNS | N/A | 19 |