Ma Qing Hua and Jason Zhang win in Macau but Zhang is champion

Ma Qing Hua and Jason Zhang Zhi Qiang won the TCR Asia races on the streets of Macau, but it was Zhang who clinched the title after second in race one and a win in race two, the latter due to Ma suffering a last-lap puncture.

Race one

Having qualified on pole position on Friday, Ma, the outsider for the TCR Asia title, lined up his Lynk & Co with Filipe Clemente de Souza’s Audi alongside on the front row of the grid.

Whilst Ma made a good start, de Souza did not, allowing Andy Yan to move up into second from third on the grid, with Jason Zhang then following through into third at Mandarin corner.

Yan then proceeded to challenge for the lead at Lisboa corner on the outside line, but it was not possible and he sat behind Ma heading up the hill onto the twisty narrow part of the lap.

De Souza, meanwhile, had dropped to sixth by Lisboa, having also been passed by Lo Sze Ho’s Hyundai and the second Team TRC Honda of James Tang.

On the second lap, Zhang performed a superb outside-line pass on Yan for second at Mandarin, as the TCR Asia points leader sought to minimise the ground lost to team-mate Ma.

Lap three saw Sunny Wong, running in seventh, attempt to pass de Souza for sixth at Lisboa, but he was unable to get far enough inside the Sonic Racing Team driver.

There was also an incident between Yang Xao Wei and Chan Weng Tong on the same lap at the top of Moorish Hill, with Chan hitting the barriers on his own and his Volkswagen bouncing into the path of the innocent CUPRA of Yang.

De Souza re-gained fifth from Tang into Lisboa on the fourth lap, with Wong moving up to fifth on lap six after Yan dropped out of contention after picking up a puncture.

Lap six would prove to be a bad one for both TRC cars, as James Tang also dropped down the order before pitting.

At the front, Zhang closed in on Ma in the final lap, but couldn’t quite complete a pass, having to settle for second behind his Teamwork Motorsport team-mate.

Lo Sze Ho completed the podium in the field’s only Hyundai, ahead of De Souza in fourth, who progressed at the expense of Yan.

Wong was fifth, ahead of NewFaster’s Terry Huang in sixth, and Jactin Chung in seventh, who put in an impressive drive from 17^th on the grid.

Race one result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	33			MA Qing Hua	Shell Teamwork Lynk & Co Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	8	20:47.596	2:33.792	1
2	36			ZHANG Zhi Qiang	Shell Teamwork Lynk & Co Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	8	0.382	2:33.517	4
3	28			LO Sze Ho	Z-Challenger Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	8	12.872	2:35.529	6
4	26			Filipe Clemente DE SOUZA	Sonic Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	8	13.518	2:34.500	2
5	12			Sunny WONG Yat Shing	Shell Teamwork Lynk & Co Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	8	16.117	2:34.838	5
6	81			Terry HUANG Chu Han	NewFaster Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	8	37.717	2:36.614	9
7	27			Jactin CHUNG	Z-Challenger Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK2 TCR	8	37.960	2:37.171	17
8	67			YAN Chuang	Fancy Aspect	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	8	53.312	2:40.428	13
9	51			Yifan WU	326 MMK Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	8	1:05.621	2:39.796	10
10	8			Kelvin WONG Kiang Kuan	Elegant Racing Team	CUPRA TCR	8	1:06.861	2:40.591	11
11	11			LIU Zi Chen	326 MMK Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	8	1:09.732	2:41.522	16
12	13			Jason MOK Tsz Wang	Z-Challenger Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK2 TCR	8	1:36.404	2:39.332	25
13	45			YIU Lung	Team Endless	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	8	1:43.347	2:43.940	20
14	66			ZOU Baolong	NewFaster Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	8	1:43.635	2:39.931	14
15	19			DENG Bao Wei	109 Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	8	1:52.692	2:46.831	21
16	5			WU Wai Hung	MacPro Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	8	2:19.771	2:47.242	19
17	76			LIU Qi	Z.Speed	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	7	+ 1 LAP	2:55.889	22
18	9			YE Guang Wen	TPR Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	7	+ 1 LAP	2:55.880	23
19	68			James TANG Chi Lun	Team TRC	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	7	+ 1 LAP	2:36.867	7
20	6			TAN Tzer Szen	Z.Speed	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	7	+ 1 LAP	3:05.991	24
R	10			TIAN Kai	Huffsport TM	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	7	DNF	2:40.670	18
R	2			Andy YAN Cheuk Wai	Team TRC	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	7	DNF	2:34.183	3
R	42			CHAN Weng Tong	Son Veng Racing Team	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	2	DNF	2:43.523	12
R	17			YANG Xiao Wei	Z.Speed	CUPRA TCR	2	DNF	2:43.349	8
NS	63			Henry LEE Jr	TPR Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	–	DNS	N/A	15
NS	22			WU Wen Fa	TPR Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	–	DNS	N/A	–
NS	14			ZHOU Yun Jie	Spark Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK2 TCR	–	DNS	N/A	–
NS	15			ZHANG Hanbiao	Zhang Hanbiao	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	–	DNS	N/A	–
NS	50			LIU Hui	Shaanxi Tianshi Racing Team	CUPRA TCR	–	DNS	N/A	–
NS	82			LAI Jing Wen	NewFaster Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	–	DNS	N/A	–

Race two

Ma started the man Guia race from pole position thanks to his race one win on Saturday, and the Chinese driver initially led, although Zhang and Lo also made good starts and were glued to the back of the Lynk & Co through the fast initial corners.

Wong had started from fifth but passed de Souza off the line, before the Hong Kong driver then passed Zhang and Lo for second around the outside line into Lisboa.

With Ma needing to win with Zhang lower than fifth, the title appeared early on in the race to be heading to Zhang.

But with Wong acting as a cork-in-the-bottle on lap one, Ma broke free and Zhang felt the pressure, dived up the inside of Wong at Lisboa on lap two and claimed second, having been under pressure from Lo just one corner earlier.

As Wong continued to take defensive lines against Lo, it opened the door for de Souza to claim fourth heading through Reservoir bend on lap three, with Lo then losing out to Terry Huang approaching Mandarin.

On lap three, Ma lost over four seconds of his lead due to a mistake, bunching up the leading quartet.

Mistakes from Kelvin Wong and Zou Bao Long came on the fourth lap at Lisboa, spelling the end of the latter’s race as he crashed his Audi into the barriers.

Zhang took the lead from Ma with a fine pass at Mandarin on lap five, with Wong following through for second at Lisboa. De Souza nearly also got through, but Ma fought back and held on to third.

On lap seven, Huang made a mistake at Lisboa and careered straight into the barriers, blocking Lo, who would have otherwise then claimed fifth. Huang reverse and was able to continue but only back to the pits to retire.

Ma dived past Wong for second on lap nine, taking the outside line approaching Mandarin, and\ by this stage Zhang should have checked out in the lead, being over six seconds in front.

But at the end of the lap he lost all of that advantage, and Ma took the lead heading up to Fishermen’s bend, with Zhang slotting into second ahead of team-mate Wong.

The leading duo then broke free from Wong again by the penultimate lap, whilst Wong was for a period left on his own in third when de Souza slowed, having been shown a black flag. The Macanese driver had in fact earlier been given a drive-through penalty for a false start, which he failed to serve, resulting in the flag.

Going onto the final lap, Ma still lead Zhang, but he picked up a puncture at Mandarin and was ailed.

Zhang did not actually take the lead until half a lap later, when Lo came charging up behind, with Zhang for a time seemingly having settled for second, clearly driving slowly behind Ma.

With Lo threatening to steal the win, Zhang dived past Ma and went on to win, with Lo later being excluded from second for a turbo overboost.

That meant officially Zhang won by 40 seconds from Ma, clinching the TCR Asia title with 260 points to Ma’s 239.

Ma wasn’t the only puncture, with Wong retiring on the penultimate lap after puncturing both of his front tyres, whilst Jason Mok’s Honda Civic FK2 stopped on the track with a technical issue.

That meant that Yang Xiao Wei claimed the final podium position in the Z.Speed CUPRA, whilst You Lung was fourth in the sole Alfa Romeo in the field.

Andy Yan retired from the race after four laps, having worked his way up to eighth from 22^nd on the grid before crashing out.

Race two result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	36			ZHANG Zhi Qiang	Shell Teamwork Lynk & Co Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	12	32:08.478	2:34.106	2
2	33			MA Qing Hua	Shell Teamwork Lynk & Co Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	12	40.538	2:33.273	1
3	17			YANG Xiao Wei	Z.Speed	CUPRA TCR	12	41.231	2:40.000	24
4	45			YIU Lung	Team Endless	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	12	52.531	2:40.859	13
5	63			Henry LEE Jr	TPR Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	12	1:09.904	2:39.704	25
6	11			LIU Zi Chen	326 MMK Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	12	1:11.246	2:40.242	11
7	51			Yifan WU	326 MMK Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	12	1:11.647	2:41.863	9
8	67			YAN Chuang	Fancy Aspect	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	12	1:13.638	2:39.572	8
9	19			DENG Bao Wei	109 Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	12	2:13.369	2:45.745	15
10	8			Kelvin WONG Kiang Kuan	Elegant Racing Team	CUPRA TCR	12	2:47.926	2:40.869	10
11	9			YE Guang Wen	TPR Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	11	+ 1 LAP	2:54.000	18
12	6			TAN Tzer Szen	Z.Speed	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	11	+ 1 LAP	2:59.170	20
R	12			Sunny WONG Yat Shing	Shell Teamwork Lynk & Co Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	12	DNF	2:34.690	5
R	26			Filipe Clemente DE SOUZA	Sonic Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	11	DNF	2:34.873	4
R	13			Jason MOK Tsz Wang	Z-Challenger Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK2 TCR	10	DNF	2:37.361	12
R	81			Terry HUANG Chu Han	NewFaster Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	7	DNF	2:36.287	6
R	5			WU Wai Hung	MacPro Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	7	DNF	2:46.046	16
R	10			TIAN Kai	Huffsport TM	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	6	DNF	2:53.166	21
R	27			Jactin CHUNG	Z-Challenger Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK2 TCR	4	DNF	2:37.084	7
R	2			Andy YAN Cheuk Wai	Team TRC	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	4	DNF	2:34.186	22
R	66			ZOU Baolong	NewFaster Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	3	DNF	2:40.843	14
R	68			James TANG Chi Lun	Team TRC	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	3	DNF	2:28.333	19
R	42			CHAN Weng Tong	Son Veng Racing Team	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	1	DNF	N/A	23
R	76			LIU Qi	Z.Speed	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	0	DNF	N/A	17
EX	28			LO Sze Ho	Z-Challenger Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	12	1.897	2:36.823	3
NS	22			WU Wen Fa	TPR Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	–	DNS	N/A	26
NS	14			ZHOU Yun Jie	Spark Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK2 TCR	–	DNS	N/A	–
NS	15			ZHANG Hanbiao	Zhang Hanbiao	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	–	DNS	N/A	–
NS	50			LIU Hui	Shaanxi Tianshi Racing Team	CUPRA TCR	–	DNS	N/A	–
NS	82			LAI Jing Wen	NewFaster Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	–	DNS	N/A	–