Luca Engstler claimed another dominant win in the opening TCR Asia – TCR China race at the Zhejiang International Circuit in China, winning by almost 20 seconds ahead of fellow Hyundai racer Pepe Oriola.
The win means Engstler is edging towards a second successive TCR Asia title, as the Liqui Moly Team Engstler driver was unchallenged on his way to a lights-to-flag victory.
Oriola claimed second in his Solite Indigo Racing i30 N, although the Spaniard had to work hard for the position after he was passed by TCR China competitor Terry Huang’s NewFaster Audi on lap five.
Oriola re-took the position from the Chinese driver on lap 11 in the first sector, and kept the Audi at bay for the rest of the race, as Huang had to settle for the final podium position but the class victory in TCR China.
Dongfeng Honda’s Dan Lloyd was originally classified fourth, the Brit having lost second on lap two when he ran wide at the final corner and allowed Oriola and Huang past. However he was later excluded from the result for failing the ride height check.
The second Engstler Motorsport Hyundai of Diego Moran was fifth, having passed Indigo Racing’s Kim Jin Soo in the first laps of the race.
Adam Khalid was the best of the Volkswagen Team Oettinger drivers in sixth, ahead of Eurasia Motorsport’s Daniel Mirand in seventh and Kim in eighth.
The new MG6 TCR cars both finished the race, with Zhang Zhen Dong being the best placed of the new cars in 12th, despite 60 kg of extra weight for being a guest entry in a non-homologated TCR car.
Rodolfo Ávila finished in last after spinning out early in the race.
Race two gets underway at 11:20 local time (04:20 BST, 05:20 CEST) on Sunday.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 1 | Luca ENGSTLER |  |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 17 | 27:04.203 | 1:34.981 | 1 |
| 2 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA |  |
Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 17 | 18.491 | 1:35.768 | 3 |
| 3 | 81 | Terry HUANG Chu Han |  |
Liqui Moly Team NewFaster | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 19.028 | 1:35.658 | 4 |
| 4 | 23 | Diego MORAN |  |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 17 | 20.967 | 1:35.925 | 6 |
| 5 | 4 | Adam KHALID |  |
Volkswagen Team Oettinger | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 17 | 25.864 | 1:36.100 | 8 |
| 6 | 20 | Daniel MIRANDA |  |
Eurasia Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 17 | 28.029 | 1:36.112 | 10 |
| 7 | 97 | KIM Jin Soo |  |
Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 17 | 35.156 | 1:36.286 | 5 |
| 8 | 88 | Kenneth LOOK | |
Liqui Moly Team NewFaster | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 39.775 | 1:36.469 | 7 |
| 9 | 30 | GAO Hua Yang | |
Eurasia Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 17 | 50.977 | 1:36.690 | 15 |
| 10 | 55 | Martin XIE Xin Zhe | |
Dongfeng Honda MacPro Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 17 | 51.544 | 1:37.172 | 9 |
| 11 | 18 | ZHANG Zhen Dong | |
MG XPower | MG 6 TCR | 17 | 52.318 | 1:37.056 | 11 |
| 12 | 88 | Kelvin WONG Kiang Kuan | |
Elegant Racing Team | CUPRA TCR | 17 | 54.076 | 1:37.283 | 14 |
| 13 | 12 | ZOU Si Rui | |
Dongfeng Honda MacPro Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 17 | 1:06.852 | 1:37.663 | 16 |
| 14 | 3 | Roland HERTNER | |
Volkswagen Team Oettinger | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 17 | 1:08.493 | 1:36.630 | 13 |
| 15 | 48 | James WONG | |
Champ T.A. Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 1:23.246 | 1:38.671 | 18 |
| 16 | 9 | Rodolfo ÁVILA |  |
MG XPower | MG 6 TCR | 17 | 1:23.314 | 1:37.013 | 12 |
| 17 | 65 | Douglas KHOO Kok Hui | |
Viper Niza Racing | CUPRA TCR | 13 | DNF | 1:41.280 | 17 |
| DQ | 77 | Daniel LLOYD |  |
Dongfeng Honda MacPro Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 17 | 20.096 | 1:35.942 | 2 |