Luca Engstler dominates the field in Zhejang Race 1
Luca Engstler took a dominant victory in the TCR Asia/TCR China first race at Zhejiang International Circuit and staked a serious claim on his second consecutive TCR Asia title. Huang Chu Han finished in third position overall and won the TCR China race, reducing his gap in the standings from Daniel Lloyd.
Engstler took the lead at the start from pole position and pulled away at the rate of one second per lap faster than his closest competitors. Behind him there was a close fight for the second position. Lloyd led the group of chasers, but he made a mistake and went wide at the last turn at the end of the second lap, Pepe Oriola and Huang took the opportunity to pass him, moving up to second and third.
On lap 6, Huang passed Oriola, but the Spaniard didn’t give up and retook the second position on lap 11. In the final part of the race, Huang settled in third position that meant victory in TCR China, while Lloyd defended the fourth place from Diego Morán.
The best of the new MG 6 cars, that of Zhang Zhen Dong was classified in 12th position after fighting for 10th with Gao Hua Yang’s Hyundai and Martin Xie’s Honda.
Engstler has stretched his leadership in the TCR Asia standings to 40 points over Morán and 60 ahead of Oriola. In TCR China, Lloyd is still topping the classification, but his margin over Huang has been reduced to 9 points.
Race 2 will start tomorrow at 11:20 local time (05:20 CET); live streaming at www.tcr-series.tv.
Race 1
1. Luca Engstler (Team Engstler, Hyundai i30 N), 17 laps
2. Pepe Oriola (Indigo Racing, Hyundai i30 N), 18.491
3. Huang Chu Han (NewFaster Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 19.028
4. Daniel Lloyd (Dongfeng MacPro Racing, Honda Civic FK7), 20.096
5. Diego Morán (Team Engstler, Hyundai i30 N), 20.967
Championship points TCR Asia
1. Engstler 168 pts; 2. Morán 128; 3. Oriola 108
Championship points TCR China
1. Lloyd 90 pts; 2. Huang 81; 3. Look 58
