Ma Qing Hua scored a historic first victory for Geely in the FIA TCR World Tour reverse-grid race at Misano, fighting past pole-sitter Jenson Brickley to take his first win since 2024.
Brickley started on pole with BRC Racing’s Gabriele Covini alongside, and at the start the Brit held his advantage, as Covini made a slow start from the line and immediately lost three places, being shuffled down to seventh by the end of the opening lap.
Brickley’s strong start saw him open up seven tenths of a second over Ma, who initially had to deal with pressure from ALM Motorsport’s Ruben Volt for second.
But by lap two, Ma was with the leading ALM Honda, and the Chinese driver briefly overtook Brickley at the penultimate corner before the Brit fought back.
That saw Ma lose momentum going onto the start-finish straight, allowing Volt to dive into second at Turn 1, but further around the lap the young Estonian locked a brake at Turn 10 and Ma was back into second.
Ma got his head down and closed back in on Brickley over the next two laps, and on the sixth tour he dived inside Brickley for the lead at Turn 10.
Thereafter, Ma extended his advantage and went on to score his first win since Zhouzhou in 2024, and more importantly the first win for the new Geely Preface TCR on its global racing début.
Brickley fell back down the order as the race went on and the Geely cars looked especially strong, but it was Hyundai’s Mikel Azcona who claimed second.
Azcona had been up to fifth, from ninth on the grid, by the end of the opening lap. The Spaniard made a late lunge on Aurélien Comte for fourth at turn 2 on the second lap, then passed Volt for third a lap later at the same place, in a move which also saw Comte and Geely’s Thed Björk also get past Volt.
Finally, Azcona overtook Brickley for second on lap seven, once again through the first sequence of turns.
The podium was completed by Björk, who after Ma was leading the Geely charge through the field, having started from sixth.
Comte claimed fourth for SP Compétition, ahead of Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher in fifth. Ehrlacher, however, is being investigated by the stewards for an incident with Norbert Michelisz on lap three, with the race one winner ultimately then retiring from the race.
Santiago Urrutia followed his Cyan Racing team-mate home in sixth, battled past Brickley at turn 13 on the eleventh lap in a move which also opened the door for GOAT Racing’s Esteban Guerrieri to take seventh.
Brickley took the chequered flag in eighth, whilst the top ten was completed by Volt and MM Motorsport’s Ramiro Zago. The latter benefitted when ALM’s Teddy Clairet picked up a front-left puncture on the penultimate lap and dropped out of the top ten.
Covini fell out of the top ten by mid-distance and was 11th, ahead of JSB Compétition duo Raphaël Fournier and Julien Briché in 12th and 13th respectively. TCR returnee Jean-Karl Vernay would have been tenth, but picked up two five-second penalties for exceeding track limits and was thus 14th.
Azcona leads the championship standings after the opening event with 65 points, ahead of Ehrlacher (48), Björk (44), Ma (42), Urrutia (42) etc.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 155 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Geely Cyan Racing | Geely Preface TCR | 15 | 25:41.002 | 1:41.644 | 3 | |
| 2 | 196 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N EV TCR | 15 | 0.973 | 1:41.566 | 9 | |
| 3 | 111 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Geely Cyan Racing | Geely Preface TCR | 15 | 1.628 | 1:41.328 | 6 | |
| 4 | 107 |  |
Aurélien COMTE | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 15 | 4.094 | 1:41.417 | 4 | |
| 5 | 168 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Geely Cyan Racing | Geely Preface TCR | 15 | 4.483 | 1:41.451 | 8 | |
| 6 | 181 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Geely Cyan Racing | Geely Preface TCR | 15 | 8.950 | 1:41.044 | 7 | |
| 7 | 186 |  |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | 10.445 | 1:41.990 | 11 | |
| 8 | 246 |  |
Jenson BRICKLEY | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | 12.897 | 1:41.786 | 1 | |
| 9 | 27 |  |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | 13.716 | 1:41.706 | 5 | |
| 10 | 72 | |
Ramiro ZAGO | MM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | 17.284 | 1:41.940 | 15 | |
| 11 | 12 |  |
Gabriele COVINI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 20.736 | 1:41.849 | 2 | |
| 12 | 145 | |
Raphaël FOURNIER | JSB Compétition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 21.034 | 1:42.644 | 17 | |
| 13 | 24 | |
Julien BRICHÉ | JSB Compétition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 24.918 | 1:42.574 | 18 | |
| 14 | 169 | |
Jean-Karl VERNAY | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 15 | 26.716 | 1:41.712 | 12 | |
| 15 | 81 | |
Damiano REDUZZI | Trico WRT | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 33.937 | 1:43.150 | 16 | |
| 16 | 120 | |
Teddy CLAIRET | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 14 | + 1 LAP | 1:42.093 | 13 | |
| R | 10 | |
Viktor ANDERSSON | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 7 | DNF | 1:41.739 | 14 | |
| R | 105 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N EV TCR | 3 | DNF | 1:42.774 | 10 |