Teamwork Motorsport’s Jason Zhang and MG’s Zhendong Zhang were victorious in Saturday’s combined TCR Asia and TCR China races at the Shanghai Tianma circuit.
Race one
Jason Zhang lined up with Teamwork Motorsport team-mate Ma Qing Hua alongside for the start of the opening race of the weekend, which took place on a damp and greasy circuit.
However, when the lights went out, Ma barely moved, suffering with an issue on his Lynk & co which dropped him to the back of the pack.
That left Ma’s title rival Zhang easily leading the race ahead of the two CTCC-spec Volkswagen Lamandos of Rainey He Xiaole and Tengyi Jiang into the first corner.
Sunny Wong held fifth in the early laps, having lost out to the independent MG of Tao Wang on the first lap, but the Hong Kong racer was mugged by five MG drivers at the end of lap two and onto lap three, including all four of the factory cars.
Wang, who had powered past Jiang at the end of the first lap, then took second from He on lap two, showing strong pace early on.
Martin Cao was the leading MG driver early on in fifth, followed by team-mates Zhendong Zhang and newcomer Yao Li.
By lap six, Jason Zhang had extended his lead to over six seconds from Wang, whilst the biggest mover in the field was Yao Li, who was up to fourth past He on lap nine, although a mistake two laps later dropped him back two places.
Li was then running in ninth on lap 14 when his MG picked up a technical issue, forcing him to pit and retire from the race.
As the circuit dried, Wang Tao dropped back, whilst Zhendong Zhang moved into second, although by this stage Jason Zhang was leading with a huge 50-second advantage, allowing the Lynk & Co driver to claim his fourth win of the season.
Completing the podium was MG’s Martin Cao, who had been eighth with ten laps remaining but made late race improvements to rise to third, including bagging what would become the final podium on the line by less than a tenth of a second from SAIC’s He.
Nathan Lu had in fact crossed the line in third, but was hit with a post-race five-second time penalty, dropping him to fifth, ahead of Jiang, who had faded late in the race, in sixth.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 36 | As |  |
ZHANG Zhi Qiang | Shell Teamwork Lynk & Co Racing | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 24 | 30:11.196 | 1:11.947 | 1 |
| 2 | 18 | As | |
Zhendong ZHANG | MG XPOWER | MG6 TCR | 24 | 50.708 | 1:13.146 | 10 |
| 3 | 88 | As | |
Martin CAO Hongwei | MG XPOWER | MG6 TCR | 24 | 1:01.034 | 1:11.175 | 6 |
| 4 | 22 | |
Xiaole HE | SAIC Volkswagen 333 Team | Volkswagen Lamando CTCC | 24 | 1:01.111 | 1:12.626 | 4 | |
| 5 | 63 | |
Nathan LU Wenhu | SAIC Volkswagen 333 Team | Volkswagen Lamando CTCC | 24 | 1:01.745 | 1:12.413 | 14 | |
| 6 | 71 | |
Tengyi JIANG | SAIC Volkswagen 333 Team | Volkswagen Lamando CTCC | 24 | 1:07.244 | 1:12.315 | 3 | |
| 7 | 601 | |
Tao WANG | AHRT Autohome Racing Team | MG6 TCR | 24 | 1:22.169 | 1:15.336 | 11 | |
| 8 | 20 | As |  |
Rodolfo AVILA | MG XPOWER | MG6 TCR | 24 | 1:26.545 | 1:11.637 | 5 |
| 9 | 100 | As | |
Liang QI | AHRT Autohome Racing Team | MG6 TCR | 23 | + 1 LAP | 1:16.732 | 15 |
| 10 | 12 | As |  |
Sunny WONG Yat Shing | Shell Teamwork Lynk & Co Racing | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 23 | + 1 LAP | 1:12.727 | 9 |
| 11 | 4 | |
GAO Hua Yang | SAIC Volkswagen 333 Team | Volkswagen Lamando CTCC | 23 | + 1 LAP | 1:13.066 | 8 | |
| 12 | 87 | |
LI Chuan | Z.Speed | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 23 | + 1 LAP | 1:16.651 | 16 | |
| 13 | 51 | As | |
Yifan WU | 326 MMK Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 22 | + 2 LAPS | 1:19.279 | 7 |
| 14 | 11 | As | |
LIU Zi Chen | 326 MMK Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 19 | + 5 LAPS | 1:16.149 | 12 |
| 15 | 55 | As | |
MA Qing Hua | Shell Teamwork Lynk & Co Racing | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 18 | + 6 LAPS | 1:14.223 | 2 |
| R | 91 | As | |
Yao LI | MG XPOWER | MG6 TCR | 14 | DNF | 1:18.306 | 13 |
Race two
Zhendong Zhang and Sunny Wong held the front row for the start of the second race of the day, with Wong getting into the lead ahead of Zhang and Yifan Wu at the first corner, although Wu would quickly lose out to the MG of Martin Cao for third.
Ma, meanwhile, had started from ninth on the reverse grid and by the end of the opening lap had gained one place to eighth, quickly becoming seventh at the first corner on the next lap to keep on the tail of team-mate Jason Zhang in sixth.
Zhendong Zhang claimed the lead from Wong on lap four, whilst further back Rodolfo Avila, running in fifth in his MG, had to stave off an aggressive attack from Jason Zhang, including with contact at the final corner.
On the following lap, Ma got by team-mate Jason Zhang for sixth, and then closed on Avila. As Avila caught Gao Hua Yang’s CTCC-spec Volkswagen Lamando, he was able to pass for fourth, but Ma tried to follow and made contact, spinning Gao and dropping him back from Avila.
Despite the incident, Ma caught back up to Avila and passed for fourth, before closing in on Wong and Cao who were running in second and third.
Ma passed Cao and Wong on lap 12 to assume second, but he ran out of time to catch Zhendong Zhang, who won the race by seven and a half seconds.
Cao brought his MG home in third, despite making contact with Wong on lap 14, although the incident cost Wong time and he finished in fifth, behind Jason Zhang.
Avila was sixth, having lost ground near the end of the race, ahead of Tengyi Jiang in seventh and Rainey He Xiaole in eighth.
The TCR China cars will continue for two more races on Sunday, but TCR Asia-exclusive participants, essentially the three Teamwork Motorsport cars, will not take part, with the TCR Asia season finale in Macau later this month.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 18 | As | |
Zhendong ZHANG | MG XPOWER | MG6 TCR | 27 | 30:40.868 | 1:06.658 | 1 |
| 2 | 55 | As | |
MA Qing Hua | Shell Teamwork Lynk & Co Racing | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 27 | 7.591 | 1:06.369 | 9 |
| 3 | 88 | As | |
Martin CAO Hongwei | MG XPOWER | MG6 TCR | 27 | 10.913 | 1:06.739 | 5 |
| 4 | 36 | As | |
ZHANG Zhi Qiang | Shell Teamwork Lynk & Co Racing | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 27 | 13.303 | 1:06.307 | 10 |
| 5 | 12 | As | |
Sunny WONG Yat Shing | Shell Teamwork Lynk & Co Racing | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 27 | 23.745 | 1:06.974 | 2 |
| 6 | 20 | As | |
Rodolfo AVILA | MG XPOWER | MG6 TCR | 27 | 24.411 | 1:06.777 | 6 |
| 7 | 71 | |
Tengyi JIANG | SAIC Volkswagen 333 Team | Volkswagen Lamando CTCC | 27 | 28.951 | 1:06.505 | 8 | |
| 8 | 22 | |
Xiaole HE | SAIC Volkswagen 333 Team | Volkswagen Lamando CTCC | 27 | 33.914 | 1:06.742 | 7 | |
| 9 | 601 | |
Tao WANG | AHRT Autohome Racing Team | MG6 TCR | 27 | 36.025 | 1:07.187 | 11 | |
| 10 | 91 | As | |
Yao LI | MG XPOWER | MG6 TCR | 27 | 42.682 | 1:08.081 | 13 |
| 11 | 51 | As | |
Yifan WU | 326 MMK Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 27 | 45.261 | 1:07.927 | 4 |
| 12 | 100 | As | |
Liang QI | AHRT Autohome Racing Team | MG6 TCR | 27 | 1:04.948 | 1:08.695 | 15 |
| 13 | 4 | |
GAO Hua Yang | SAIC Volkswagen 333 Team | Volkswagen Lamando CTCC | 26 | + 1 LAP | 1:06.890 | 3 | |
| 14 | 87 | |
LI Chuan | Z.Speed | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 25 | + 2 LAPS | 1:10.999 | 16 | |
| R | 63 | |
Nathan LU Wenhu | SAIC Volkswagen 333 Team | Volkswagen Lamando CTCC | 16 | DNF | 1:06.964 | 14 | |
| R | 11 | As | |
LIU Zi Chen | 326 MMK Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 1 | DNF | N/A | 12 |