» WTCR: Muller gives Lynk & Co a home win

Yvan Muller and Ma Qing Hua combined to make it a day to remember for local fans at the FIA World Touring Car Cup Race of China, with Muller winning in a Chinese-built Lynk & Co 03 TCR and Shanghai-based Ma pushing him all the way as he battled to claim a home win in the opening race.

Muller, starting from pole position, held off a race-long challenge from home hero Ma who couldn’t quite find a way past the French veteran over thirteen tense laps of racing.

Muller made a strong getaway from pole, leaving Ma to briefly fend off PWR Racing’s Mikel Azcona, but it was the Chinese driver who later had the performance to push the leader. Ma kept Muller under pressure all the way to the flag at the Ningbo International Speedpark, with the pair crossing the line separated by barely a quarter of a second.

“That was far from easy,” said Muller, whose victory was his first of 2019. “Ma gave me a hard time. At one point I asked my engineer how many laps to go and he said six. I said, ‘Woah, that’s a way to go!’ So, I had to get my head down.”

Muller was particularly pleased to end his season win drought at Ningbo. “Lynk & Co are based 10 minutes from here, so this was the one to win,” he said.

The ever-impressive Azcona completed the podium for PWR on his first outing at the tricky Ningbo circuit, but the youngster only just held off a late charge from fello championship frontrunner Norbert Michelisz. Fourth place for the BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse lifts him to just nine points behind series leader Esteban Guerrieri, with Azcona’s podium finish vaulting him to third in the standings.

Guerrieri endured a disastrous race after accidentally triggering his fire extinguisher on the grid. That forced the Honda Civic Type R TCR, which was supposed to line up in P12, to start from the pit lane. Although the Argentinian rose to P19 in the race, that meant he failed to add to his season points tally for the third time in four races.

Nicky Catsburg followed Michelisz home in fifth in his Hyundai, ahead of Comtoyou DHL Team CUPRA Racing’s Aurélien Panis who got the better of Augusto Farfus for sixth.

A poor first lap dropped SLR Volkswagen’s Johan Kristoffersson from fifth on the grid to eighth and that is where the Swedish driver finished. Comtoyou Team Audi Sport’s Niels Langeveld and SLR VW Motorsport’s Rob Huff completed the top 10, the Briton using his previous racing experience at the circuit to rise from P16.

Comtoyou Team Audi Sport’s Frédéric Vervisch got the better of Andy Priaulx for P11, then held off a trio of Lynk & Cos to the flag. Priaulx was ordered to drop behind teammates Thed Björk and Yann Ehrlacher. Néstor Girolami was the final points finisher in P15.

Defending WTCR champion Gabriele Tarquini and PWR’s Daniel Haglöf, who had started P10, were the only non-finishers. Both pitted at the end of the first lap, with Haglöf sporting visible damage to the front of his car.

WTCR Race of China continues on Sunday with Second Qualifying from 09:00 local time followed by Race 2 at 14:30 and Race 3 at 15:50 (GMT +8).

2019 FIA WTCR Race of China – Race 1 Final Classification (13 laps)
	Driver	Team / Entry	Laps	Result	Pts
1.	Yvan Muller	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	13	24:41.861	25
2.	Ma Qing Hua	Team Mulsanne	13	+ 0.263	20
3.	Mikel Azcona	PWR Racing	13	+ 2.444	16
4.	Norbert Michelisz	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	13	+ 2.843	13
5.	Nicky Catsburg	BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team	13	+ 3.092	11
6.	Aurélien Panis	Comtoyou Team DHL Cupra Racing	13	+ 3.603	10
7.	Augusto Farfus	BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team	13	+ 9.028	9
8.	Johan Kristoffersson	SLR Volkswagen	13	+ 11.440	8
9.	Niels Langeveld	Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	13	+ 12.526	7
10.	Rob Huff	SLR VW Motorsport	13	+ 13.903	6
11.	Frédéric Vervisch	Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	13	+ 15.440	5
12.	Thed Björk	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	13	+ 18.021	4
13.	Yann Ehrlacher	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	13	+ 18.602	3
14.	Andy Priaulx	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	13	+ 19.602	2
15.	Néstor Girolami	Münnich Motorsport	13	+ 20.069	1
16.	Jean-Karl Vernay	Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport	13	+ 20.631
17.	Kevin Ceccon	Team Mulsanne	13	+ 21.118
18.	Benjamin Leuchter	SLR Volkswagen	13	+ 21.515
19.	Esteban Guerrieri	Münnich Motorsport	13	+ 23.224
20.	Mehdi Bennani	SLR VW Motorsport	13	+ 26.212
21.	Tiago Monteiro	KCMG	13	+ 26.576
22.	Gordon Shedden	Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport	13	+ 28.614
23.	Attila Tassi	KCMG	13	+ 29.585
24.	Tom Coronel	Comtoyou Team DHL Cupra Racing	13	+ 39.538
	Not Classified	Team / Entry	Laps	Reason
DNF.	Gabriele Tarquini	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	9	Collision
DNF.	Daniel Haglöf	PWR Racing	8	Collision

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:

Esteban Guerrieri was issued a three-place grid penalty for Race 1 at Ningbo for causing an avoidable collision with Nicky Catsburg.
Jean-Karl Vernay – who was provisionally classified P10 – was excluded when his car was found to have exceeded the boost limits set by the FIA Balance of Performance chart in the race.

Text and images via FIA WTCR Media