» WTCR: Ma wins for Alfa Romeo in Slovakia

Ma Qing Hua claimed his first race win since joining the FIA World Touring Car Cup in the third and final race at the Slovakia Ring, fending off a race-long challenge from BRC Racing Hyundai’s Norbert Michelisz.

Ma’s teammate Kevin Ceccon completed the podium, giving the Team Mulsanne Alfa Romeo squad its fourth podium finish of the weekend following Ma’s second place in Race 1 and Ceccon’s third place in Race 2.

As he did in Race 1, Ma rocketed away from third on the grid and slotted into the lead at Turn 1, jumping pole-sitter Nicky Catsburg and Michelisz’s Hyundais which had locked out the front row.

The opening lap was again a frenetic affair, with championship leader and Race 2 winner Néstor Girolami coming off worse as the pack swung through the high-speed Turn 2. The Argentine was run into the gravel and dropped to the back of the field when he accidentally activated his pit lane speed limiter while his Münnich Motorsport Honda bounced through the run-off.

On Lap 5, Catsburg appeared to strike trouble, with his Hyundai suffering an intermittent problem that saw the Dutch driver cede second place to Michelisz and shortly after he lost third place to Ceccon.

Catsburg continued to fall down the order, losing positions to Niels Langeveld’s Comtoyou Audi, Esteban Guerrieri’s Münnich Motorsport Honda and the PWR Racing Cupras of Mikel Azcona and Daniel Haglöf in quick succession.

Haglöf also began to lose ground and fell back into the clutches of the battle for tenth place between Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Rob Huff and Hyundai driver Gabriele Tarquini. Approaching Turn 3, the Swede suffered a huge lock-up and ran into the back of Huff’s VW Golf and the Comtoyou Cupra of Tom Coronel – who was staging a charge up the field similar to Race 2 – which led to Coronel getting a puncture.

Up at the front, Michelisz was sandwiched between Ma and Ceccon, trying to attack the former and defend from the latter. He managed to draw alongside Ma on the run to Turn 3, but Ma doggedly held the inside line to fend off the Hungarian and deny him his first victory of the season.

The top-three finished in that order, crossing the line covered by just six-tenths of a second. Michelisz’s second place helped to vault him to third in the Drivers’ Championship standings behind Girolami and Guerrieri.

Langeveld earned his third points’ finish on the trot and his best result of the season with a fine fourth, while Azcona was the best-placed Cupra in fifth.

Guerrieri finished in sixth and with teammate Girolami failing to score he closes in to sit just two points behind his Argentine compatriot and teammate at the top of the Drivers’ Championship standings.

Augusto Farfus (BRC Racing Hyundai) crossed the line in seventh ahead of Aurélien Panis (Comtoyou Cupra), with the Hyundais of Gabriele Tarquini and wildcard entrant Luca Engstler completing the top ten finishers.

In what was a disastrous weekend for the Lynk & Co runners, Thed Björk was the best-placed of the Cyan Racing quartet in eleventh.

The next round of the championship takes place at Zandvoort next weekend.

2019 FIA WTCR Race of Slovakia – Race 3 Final Classification (11 laps)
	Driver	Team / Entry	Laps	Result	Pts
1.	Ma Qing Hua	Team Mulsanne	11	24:27.427	25
2.	Norbert Michelisz	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	11	+ 0.242	20
3.	Kevin Ceccon	Team Mulsanne	11	+ 0.694	16
4.	Niels Langeveld	Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	11	+ 11.818	13
5.	Mikel Azcona	PWR Racing	11	+ 12.413	11
6.	Esteban Guerrieri	Münnich Motorsport	11	+ 13.536	10
7.	Augusto Farfus	BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team	11	+ 14.116	9
8.	Aurélien Panis	Comtoyou Team DHL Cupra Racing	11	+ 16.833	8
9.	Gabriele Tarquini	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	11	+ 16.963	7
10.	Luca Engstler (WC)	Hyundai Team Engstler	11	+ 17.997
11.	Thed Björk	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	11	+ 20.247	6
12.	Nicky Catsburg	BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team	11	+ 20.483	5
13.	Rob Huff	SLR VW Motorsport	11	+ 22.259	4
14.	Yvan Muller	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	11	+ 23.749	3
15.	Gordon Shedden	Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport	11	+ 25.427	2
16.	Benjamin Leuchter	SLR Volkswagen	11	+ 25.724	1
17.	Tiago Monteiro	KCMG	11	+ 26.041
18.	Johan Kristoffersson	SLR Volkswagen	11	+ 26.398
19.	Mehdi Bennani	SLR VW Motorsport	11	+ 28.218
20.	Yann Ehrlacher	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	11	+ 28.402
21.	Frédéric Vervisch	Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	11	+ 31.706
22.	Andy Priaulx	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	11	+ 34.320
23.	Tom Coronel	Comtoyou Team DHL Cupra Racing	11	+ 35.050
24.	Néstor Girolami	Münnich Motorsport	11	+ 57.914
25.	Attila Tassi	KCMG	11	+ 1:14.131
	Not Classified	Team / Entry	Laps	Reason
DNF.	Daniel Haglöf	PWR Racing	10	Collision
DNF.	Jean-Karl Vernay	Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport	3	Collision	4

Championship Points:

The top fifteen classified finishers (excluding wildcard entries) and their respective teams are awarded championship points on a 25-20-16-13-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 sliding scale.

Post-Race Penalties: