Thed Björk claimed a crucial victory in the FIA TCR World Tour with a decisive victory in a red-flagged opening race in Macau, finishing ahead of title rival Norbert Michelisz to close the drivers’ championship gap to five points ahead of Sunday’s showdown.
Starting from pole position, Björk led the field through the opening quartet of corners before the race had to be red-flagged due to two separate incidents at the start.
Björk’s Cyan Racing team-mate Ma Qing Hua had stalled his Lynk & Co from seventh on the grid and was missed by much of the field, but the Honda of Gary Kwok clipped the stationary blue car and ripped a wheel off, which in turn bounced into the path of Benny Santoso’s Honda.
At Lisboa, GOAT Racing’s Esteban Guerrieri, in the knowledge that both of his title rivals were ahead, appeared keen to get past Cyan’s Yann Ehrlacher for fourth but went deep into Lisboa, and as the Honda driver came back onto the circuit he kept moving to the right on the approach to Turn 4.
With Guerrieri’s team-mate Marco Butti already occupying that part of the track and as far right as he could be, contact was made, turning Guerrieri sideways into the path of Rob Huff, who had made a scintillating start to move from 15th on the grid up to eighth.
Guerrieri was left sideways blocking the circuit, the right-rear wheel ripped from his Civic, resulting in the red flags coming out and leaving the Argentine’s title hopes in tatters.
Guerrieri was found to be at fault for coming over on Butti as he exited Lisboa corner, and was givne a three-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race as a result.
A lengthy delay ensued and it took more than half an hour before racing could resume, with the safety car leading the field out of the pitlane.
Racing resumed in anger on lap three, and Björk swiftly set about building himself a comfortable lead, as behind him BRC Racing team-mates Mikel Azcona and Michelisz swapped positions, the latter having crucially got ahead of Ehrlacher at the original start.
With series leader Michelisz now in second, he was able to limit the loss of points to rival Björk in the championship, but the Hyundai driver couldn’t get within a second of the leader, and Björk went on to claim his first win in Macau by just under two seconds from Michelisz.
Azcona completed the podium in third, acting as an effective rear guard for Michelisz against the onslaught of Ehrlacher, who had to settle for fourth.
Néstor Girolami brought his BRC Racing Hyundai home in fifth, despite heavy late-race pressure from Volcano Motorsport’s Rob Huff, who was an impressive sixth, the Brit having moved ahead of TCR China’s Martin Cao on the lap after the restart.
Dušan Borković also got by Cao through into seventh four laps later, but by this stage the gap ahead to Huff was over 16 seconds and he had to settle for seventh as the leading Honda in the field.
Cao thus brought his Hyundai home in eighth as the leading TCR China driver, extending his points lead over title rival Jason Zhang, who was just behind him in ninth.
David Zhu completed the top ten behind his Teamwork Motorsport team-mate.
Zhang Zhen Dong clinched the TCR Asia title with 11th, the Hyundai driver mainly having to finish the race after title rival Max Hart was caught up in the opening lap incidents and didn’t rejoin the race after the red flag.
Evolve Racing’s Lo Sze Ho was 12th, whilst Cyan Racing’s Santiago Urrutia was 13th, having started from the very back of the grid.
The season finale of the TCR World Tour, TCR China and TCR Asia takes place at 10:55 local time (02:55 GMT, 03:55 CET) on Sunday.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 111 | WT |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 11 | 11 LAPS | 2:31.730 | 1 |
| 2 | 105 | WT |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 1.874 | 2:31.817 | 4 |
| 3 | 196 | WT |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 2.529 | 2:31.590 | 2 |
| 4 | 168 | WT |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 11 | 3.442 | 2:31.924 | 3 |
| 5 | 129 | WT |  |
Néstor GIROLAMI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 7.016 | 2:32.066 | 5 |
| 6 | 179 | WT |  |
Rob HUFF | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 11 | 7.807 | 2:31.960 | 15 |
| 7 | 62 | WT |  |
Dušan BORKOVIĆ | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 11 | 29.074 | 2:33.086 | 10 |
| 8 | 1 | CN |  |
Martin CAO Hongwei | Hyundai N | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 33.002 | 2:34.598 | 8 |
| 9 | 36 | CN | |
Jason ZHANG Zhi Qiang | Lynk & Co Teamwork Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 11 | 35.105 | 2:34.848 | 13 |
| 10 | 9 | CN | |
David ZHU Dai Wei | Lynk & Co Teamwork Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 11 | 40.957 | 2:35.049 | 11 |
| 11 | 18 | AS | |
ZHANG Zhen Dong | Hyundai N by Z.Speed | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 42.401 | 2:35.204 | 14 |
| 12 | 28 | CN |  |
LO Sze Ho | Evolve Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 49.283 | 2:34.997 | 28 |
| 13 | 112 | WT |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 11 | 55.211 | 2:34.478 | 32 |
| 14 | 2 | CN | |
Rainey HE Xiaole | Hyundai N | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 1:06.771 | 2:36.593 | 18 |
| 15 | 14 | AS |  |
HWANG Doyun | Hyundai N by Z.Speed | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 1:08.317 | 2:36.459 | 23 |
| 16 | 12 | CN | |
Sunny WONG Yat Shing | Lynk & Co Teamwork Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 11 | 1:20.055 | 2:38.555 | 19 |
| 17 | 95 | CN | |
HU Heng | GYT Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 11 | 1:33.019 | 2:39.522 | 26 |
| 18 | 66 | CN | |
LI Guang Hua | 326 Racing Team | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 11 | 1:34.340 | 2:38.665 | 24 |
| 19 | 87 | CN | |
MAN Siu Ming | Evolve Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 11 | 2:22.779 | 2:43.107 | 31 |
| 20 | 82 | AS |  |
Dypo FITRAMADHAN | Delta Garage Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | + 1 LAP | 2:50.485 | 30 |
| 21 | 56 | AS | |
Benny SANTOSO | Hyundai N by Z.Speed | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 9 | + 2 LAPS | 2:45.080 | 29 |
| NC | 72 | CN | |
Juan Carlos ZHU | Lynk & Co Teamwork Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 4 | NCF | 2:41.695 | 20 |
| R | 199 | WT |  |
Marco BUTTI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 3 | DNF | 36:21.673 | 12 |
| R | 3 | CN | |
Andy YAN Cheuk Wai | Hyundai N | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 1 | DNF | N/A | 9 |
| R | 69 | AS |  |
Max HART | Hyundai N by Z.Speed | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 1 | DNF | N/A | 21 |
| R | 55 | CN | |
Martin XIE Xin Zhe | MacPro Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 1 | DNF | N/A | 16 |
| R | 186 | WT | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 6 |
| R | 155 | WT | |
MA Qing Hua | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 7 |
| R | 127 | WT | |
John FILIPPI | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 0 | DNF | N/A | 17 |
| R | 52 | CN | |
LAI Jing Wen | 326 Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 0 | DNF | N/A | 22 |
| R | 11 | CN | |
Gary KWOK | MacPro Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 25 |
| R | 51 | CN | |
WU Yifan | 326 Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 0 | DNF | N/A | 27 |