LADA’s Rob Huff took a dramatic final-lap victory in the final World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) race of the season in Macau, after early race leader Tiago Monteiro suffered a mechanical problem on the penultimate lap of the race.
Huff, who started the race from third, was immediately in the ascendancy as the lights went out, following Monteiro past front-row starters Hugo Valente and Tom Chilton to settle in second position.
As the race progressed Citroën’s Yvan Muller, who also made a strong start to move from eighth on the grid up to third, began to pressure Huff for second. However the Brit put up a resolute defence of his position, continuing to hold second after a safety car period two laps from the finish, which was caused when Citroën’s Ma Qing Hua planted his car in the barriers at the final turn.
It all changed at the front just before the start of the final lap when Monteiro, who looked set for his first win of the season, suddenly slowed with apparent power steering problems. That promoted Huff to the lead for the final lap and one last defence into Lisboa corner on the final lap essentially secured him a second win of the season.
Completing the podium behind Muller was Valente, who recovered to third after a disastrous opening lap. The Campos Racing driver, having lost the lead at the start, then tried too hard into Lisboa a couple of corners later and dropped to fifth. A strong restart after the safety car allowed the Frenchman to retake fourth from Zengő Motorsport’s Norbert Michelisz, who settled for fourth.
José María López finished the race in fifth, with Sébastien Loeb directly behind him in sixth. The Frenchman made a pair of overtaking moves on ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel and Tom Chilton on laps five and six respectively to show strong racing skills to end a promising début season.
Chilton got past team-mate Coronel late in the race to take seventh, with the Dutchman following home in eighth.
Completing the top ten were LADA’s James Thompson, who had been unable to emulate the performances of his team-mate all weekend, and TC2’s Franz Engstler.
Mikhail Kozlovskiy failed to take the chequered flag, retiring once again with mechanical problems on his LADA. There was also a retirement for Münnich Motorsport’s Gianni Morbidelli on lap four when the Italian spun into the barriers at Fisherman’s Bend.
A number of drivers failed to start the race. Honda’s Gabriele Tarquini, still suffering from illness, peeled into the pits at the end of the formation lap and called it a day. Proteam Racing’s Mehdi Bennani also didn’t start due to the damage inflicted on his Honda in race one by TC2 driver Henry Kwong. Campos Racing’s William Lok also failed to start after planting his SEAT in the barriers in race one.
Top ten result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 12 | TC1 | Rob HUFF |  |
LADA Sport | LADA Granta 1.6T | 11 | 28:21.086 | 2:27.009 | 3 |
| 2 | 1 | TC1 | Yvan MULLER |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 11 | 0.344 | 2:27.598 | 8 |
| 3 | 7 | TC1 | Hugo VALENTE | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 11 | 3.352 | 2:28.506 | 1 |
| 4 | 5 | TC1 | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
Zengő Motorsport | Honda Civic WTCC | 11 | 3.99 | 2:28.204 | 7 |
| 5 | 37 | TC1 | José María LÓPEZ |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 11 | 4.285 | 2:28.186 | 10 |
| 6 | 9 | TC1 | Sébastien LOEB | |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 11 | 4.825 | 2:27.714 | 9 |
| 7 | 3 | TC1 | Tom CHILTON | |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 11 | 5.562 | 2:28.408 | 2 |
| 8 | 4 | TC1 | Tom CORONEL |  |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 11 | 6.615 | 2:28.254 | 6 |
| 9 | 11 | TC1 | James THOMPSON | |
LADA Sport | LADA Granta 1.6T | 11 | 8.252 | 2:28.563 | 14 |
| 10 | 6 | TC2T | Franz ENGSTLER |  |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | BMW 320 TC | 11 | 41.038 | 2:34.403 | 16 |