Ma Qing Hua wins rain-affected TCR Asia / China race one in Shanghai

Teamwork Motorsport’s Ma Qing Hua was the dominant victor in the third race of the 2021 TCR Asia / China season in Shanghai, as rain affected the race and forced drivers to pit mid-race for a tyre change.

At the start, Teamwork Motorsport’s Ma Qing Hua assumed the lead from pole position, as his team-mate Sunny Wong moved into second from fourth on the grid with a pass on Zhendong Zhang’s MG.

Macanese racer Rodolfo Avila had started from second on the grid, but the MG driver had a slow getaway and dropped to fourth at the start behind team-mate Zhang.

Zhang re-took second from Wong at Turn 6 on the opening lap, and as Avila tried to follow through he made contact with the Lynk & Co, spinning Wong in front of the pack.

The helpless Wong was then collected by the Audi of Yifan Wu, taking both drivers out of the race and requiring a safety car interruption to recover Wong’s Lynk & Co, as Wu limped back to the pits to retire.

The safety car was on track for one lap, and racing resumed on lap three, as rain began to fall and drivers had to turn on their wipers.

Avila quickly re-passed team-mate Zhang for second, and by the end of the lap conditions had become fully wet, with spray from all cars.

Avila was clearly relishing the conditions and passed Ma for the lead at Turn 13 on lap four, but then the safety car was called again, and Ma dived for the pitlane to change tyres, along with several other drivers, including series newcomer Liu Zi Chen, Tao Wang and Ruan Cun Fan.

Most of the rest of the field pitted for wet tyres on the next lap, with the exception of Jason Zhang Zhi Qiang and six other drivers, who remained out on track on slick tyres.

Racing resumed on a wet track on lap seven, with Jason Zhang making a dive for the pits for wet rubber, with the leading sextet all running on the wrong tyres.

Ma at this stage was in fifth already and quickly breezed past the leading drivers, leading by the exit of the Turns 1 and 2 complex.

Liu Zi Chen assumed second at Turn 13 on the same lap, but had no answer to Ma’s pace, who pulled out a lead of over 22 seconds by the end of the race.

It marks Ma’s third win in a row, as he has won all races to-date in the interrupted 2021 season.

Chen claimed second, ahead of Tao Wang in third, who had been a beneficiary of the early decision to switch to wet tyres, having started from 11^th on the grid.

Jason Zhang could only take the finish in 11^th, whilst Avila ended up in 15^th after suffering from pitting a lap too late for his own wet tyres.

Race two is scheduled to get underway at 13:25 on Sunday (06:25 BST, 07:25 CEST).

Race results

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	55			MA Qing Hua	Shell Teamwork Lynk & Co Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	11	32:33.128	2:20.881	1
2	11			LIU Zi Chen	326 MMK Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	11	22.367	2:24.499	8
3	601			Tao WANG	AHRT Autohome Racing Team	MG6 TCR	11	22.453	2:25.400	11
4	17			YANG Xiao Wei	Z.Speed	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	11	26.709	2:23.801	6
5	100			Liang QI	AHRT Autohome Racing Team	MG6 TCR	11	29.028	2:34.066	20
6	92			ZHU Yuan Jie	SAIC Volkswagen 333 Team	Volkswagen Lamando CTCC	11	29.647	2:24.262	13
7	10			MAI Yi Bo	Elegant Racing Team	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	11	32.589	2:37.099	21
8	16			RUAN Cun Fan	ZZRT	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	11	33.780	2:25.268	14
9	26			SUN Chao	SAIC Volkswagen 333 Team	Volkswagen Lamando CTCC	11	37.706	2:27.381	10
10	77			Samuel QIU	Z. Speed	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	11	39.637	2:26.677	19
11	36			ZHANG Zhi Qiang	Shell Teamwork Lynk & Co Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	11	1:04.156	2:21.241	9
12	18			Zhendong ZHANG	MG XPOWER	MG6 TCR	11	1:06.457	2:21.661	3
13	3			Yang XI	Huffsport TM	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	11	1:11.806	2:23.091	5
14	63			Nathan LU Wenhu	SAIC Volkswagen 333 Team	Volkswagen Lamando CTCC	11	1:14.996	2:25.529	17
15	20			Rodolfo AVILA	MG XPOWER	MG6 TCR	11	1:49.902	2:20.760	2
16	7			YAN Chuang	MG XPOWER	MG6 TCR	11	1:59.214	2:25.364	12
17	22			Xiaole HE	SAIC Volkswagen 333 Team	Volkswagen Lamando CTCC	11	2:08.612	2:23.876	16
18	88			Martin CAO Hongwei	MG XPOWER	MG6 TCR	11	2:23.468	2:20.949	22
19	15			Ken TIAN	Huffsport TM	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	10	+ 1 LAP	2:35.690	15
20	66			CHEN Ze Xun	Z. Speed	CUPRA TCR	10	+ 1 LAP	2:47.287	18
R	51			Yifan WU	326 MMK Racing Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	1	DNF	N/A	7
R	12			Sunny WONG Yat Shing	Shell Teamwork Lynk & Co Racing	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	0	DNF	N/A	4