Ma Qing Hua wins chaotic rain-hit first race at Shanghai

Ma Qing Hua emerged as the winner of a crazy first race of the TCR Asia-TCR China weekend at Shanghai International Circuit, capitalising after pitting for wet tyres behind the safety car after a surprise rain shower.
Ma had qualified on pole position in his Teamwork Motorsport Lynk & Co 03, leading the morning’s qualifying session by more than 1.5 seconds over the MG 6 XPower of Rodolfo Ávila.
Ma got away well from pole, but Ávila had a slow start from the outside of the front row and found himself passed by into Turn 1 by Sunny Wong’s Teamwork Lynk & Co and the MG of his teammate Zhang Zhen Dong.
Zhang quickly got back ahead of Wong at Turn 6, while Ávila made contact with the rear of Wong’s car at Turn 8 and spun him around, where he was collected by the 326 MMK Racing Team Audi of Wu Yi Fan.
The safety car was deployed to recover Wong’s car, with the race restarting on lap four.
Just as the race restarted, rain began to fall. Ávila quickly passed his teammate Zhang at Turn 6, and then was attacking Ma as the field braved the conditions with slick tyres on the wet track.
The safety car was deployed just as Ávila passed Ma for the lead on lap five. Ma and the majority of the field immediately headed into the pit lane to change tyres, while Ma’s teammate Zhang Zhi Qiang stayed out, as did all four of the MG XPower team’s cars. A lap later and the MGs all came in, but this late call would drop them to the absolute rear of the field.
Just as the race restarted, Zhang Zhi Qiang pitted from the lead, handing it over to Yang Xi’s Huffsport TM Audi, but Yang and a number of lapped cars were quickly passed by Ma’s wet-shod Lynk & Co.
Ma pulled out a 22-second lead in the remaining laps of the time-shortened race, winning his third race in a row ahead of Liu Zi Chen’s Audi, who won in the TCR China classification on his debut, with Wang Tao classified third overall in the Autohome Racing Team MG 6.
Zhang Zhi Qiang finished down in ninth, while the best-placed finishers of the MG XPower squad was Zhang Zhen Dong in tenth.
The second race takes place at 13:25 local time tomorrow (07:25 CEST), with Zhang Zhi Qiang starting from the reversed grid pole position. Live streaming at www.tcr-series.com.

Shanghai – Race 1
1. Ma Qing Hua (Shell Teamwork, Lynk & Co 03), 11 laps
2. Liu Zi Chen (326 MKK Racing Team, Audi RS 3 LMS), 22.367
3. Wang Tao (Auto Home Racing Team, MG 6), 22.453
4. Yang Xiao Wei (Z.Speed, Audi RS 3 LMS), 26.709
5. Liang Qi (Auto Home Racing Team, MG 6), 29.028

TCR Asia - Championship standings
1. Ma Qing Hua 85 pts; 2. Zhang Zhi Qiang 46; 3. Yang Shiao Wei 26

TCR China - Championship standings
1. Yang Xi 45 pts; 2. Zheng Wan Cheng 40; 3. Yang Shiao Wei 36

Picture: TCR China