» WTCR: Priaulx finally breaks through

Andy Priaulx became the fifteenth different race-winner of the 2019 FIA World Touring Car Cup, giving Lynk & Co a clean sweep of the Guia Race of Macau round and denying Rob Huff a fairytale tenth victory at the iconic street circuit.

The Guernseyman, who has borne a run of bad luck in his first season of front-wheel-drive touring car racing, managed to get the jump on pole-sitter Huff from the front row of the grid and kept the SLR Volkswagen driver at arm’s length for the remainder of the race.

Huff was able to hang on to second place as the pack sprinted towards Lisboa, slotting in behind his fellow Briton and ahead of the ART Audi of Jean-Karl Vernay and fellow SLR VW driver Johan Kristoffersson.

Thed Björk was fourth ahead of sixth-placed Cyan Racing Lynk & Co teammate Yvan Muller – winner of the weekend’s two races so far – with the pair split by the BRC Racing Hyundai of Nicky Catsburg.

The top-four runners soon broke away from Björk, with the quartet repeatedly trying to slipstream each other through the fast harbourfront section of the lap. While Huff was clearly faster than Priaulx through the mountain section of the lap, the single-file twists and turns made it impossible for him to attempt a pass.

Priaulx, meanwhile, made sure he always had the better exit from the final corner to deny Huff any shot at a lunge into Lisboa. Huff was himself being kept busy by an attacking Vernay, whose team had worked frantically to remedy the engine issues that had plagued the Frenchman in Race 2.

Björk led the next train of cars, sitting comfortably in fifth place until the final lap before once again slowing under instruction from the Cyan Racing pit wall to allow Muller (and, in the process, Catsburg) to pass him so his teammate could gain a few extra points to strengthen his Drivers’ Championship ambitions.

Muller therefore finished as the best-placed of the championship contenders in sixth place – title rivals Norbert Michelisz (BRC Racing Hyundai) and Esteban Guerrieri (Münnich Motorsport Honda) were consigned to twelfth and tenth respectively.

Michelisz still leads the WTCR points standings, albeit with a reduced margin of 9 points to Guerrieri and 11 points to Muller ahead of the season-ending Race of Malaysia at Sepang next month.

2019 FIA WTCR Guia Race of Macau – Race 3 Final Classification (11 laps)
	Driver	Team / Entry	Laps	Result	Pts
1.	Andy Priaulx	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	11	27:58.428	25
2.	Rob Huff	SLR VW Motorsport	11	+ 0.352	20
3.	Jean-Karl Vernay	Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport	11	+ 1.193	16
4.	Johan Kristoffersson	SLR Volkswagen	11	+ 1.855	13
5.	Nicky Catsburg	BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team	11	+ 20.030	11
6.	Yvan Muller	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	11	+ 21.096	10
7.	Thed Björk	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	11	+ 21.552	9
8.	Yann Ehrlacher	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	11	+ 22.194	8
9.	Kevin Ceccon	Team Mulsanne	11	+ 22.565	7
10.	Esteban Guerrieri	Münnich Motorsport	11	+ 23.506	6
11.	Tom Coronel	Comtoyou Team DHL Cupra Racing	11	+ 23.884	5
12.	Norbert Michelisz	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	11	+ 24.597	4
13.	Niels Langeveld	Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	11	+ 25.054	3
14.	Luca Engstler	BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team	11	+ 27.552	2
15.	Frédéric Vervisch	Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	11	+ 27.925	1
16.	Attila Tassi	KCMG	11	+ 29.259
17.	Néstor Girolami	Münnich Motorsport	11	+ 30.140
18.	Mehdi Bennani	SLR VW Motorsport	11	+ 30.527
19.	Tiago Monteiro	KCMG	11	+ 31.317
20.	Mikel Azcona	PWR Racing	11	+ 31.500
21.	Benjamin Leuchter	SLR Volkswagen	11	+ 32.319
22.	Ma Qing Hua	Team Mulsanne	11	+ 34.602
23.	Aurélien Panis	Comtoyou Team DHL Cupra Racing	11	+ 37.051
24.	Robert Dahlgren	PWR Racing	11	+ 39.756
25.	Billy Lo Kai Fung	Tian Shi Zuver Team	11	+ 51.272
	Not Classified	Team / Entry	Laps	Reason
DNF.	Gabriele Tarquini	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	3	Mechanical
DNS.	Gordon Shedden	Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport		Withdrawn
DNS.	Jim Ka To	KC Motorgroup		Withdrawn

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: