Dušan Borković claimed victory in a rain-delayed final FIA TCR World Tour race of the season on the streets of Macau, as fifth place was enough to ensure Norbert Michelisz clinched back-to-back drivers’ titles.
The start of the race was delayed by around two hours due to heavy rain, with the FIA GT World Cup race brought forward in the schedule as the track conditions improved.
When the Guia race eventually took to the track the circuit was still wet, but with drying lines emerging, several competitors opted to start on slick tyres, including GOAT Racing trio Borković, Esteban Guerrieri and Marco Butti from fourth, eighth and 12th on the grid respectively.
TCR China’s Andy Yan started on the reverse-grid pole with Hyundai team-mate Martin Cao, fighting for the TCR China title, alongside.
The race began behind the safety car, with Yan leading the field, but he was quickly passed by Cao into Lisboa on the first lap of racing.
BRC Racing’s Néstor Girolami quickly yielded to World Tour title chasing team-mate Michelisz, but the latter lacked the pace to keep up with Borković on slick rubber in fourth.
With Guerrieri struggling on his slick tyres in the early stages, lap four saw Mikel Azcona get by into seventh to latch on to team-mates Michelisz and Girolami, with the latter allowing Azcona into sixth by the end of the lap.
At the front, Yan fell behind both Ma Qing Hua and Borković on the fifth lap, with Borković passing the Cyan Racing driver in front for second into the final corner.
Yan, meanwhile, quickly fell behind the TCR World Tour regulars to eighth as he didn’t put up a fight with those battling in a different ranking.
Borković took just two corners to then move into the race lead, passing Cao with aplomb into Lisboa, and in the time it took Ma to also get by at the last corner of the lap, Borković had built up a four-second advantage.
By mid-distance, Guerrieri’s slick tyres were coming into form, and on the seventh tour he passed four cars, including all three BRC Hyundais and Ma, to move into second, with team-mate Butti, also on dry tyres, following him through to make it a GOAT Racing 1-2-3 at the front.
Two laps later, TCR Asia’s Max Hart stopped on the run up to Mandarin corner with damage to his Hyundai after sliding into the barrier at Reservoir corner, prompting a late-race two-lap safety car intervention.
That allowed for just one lap of racing at the end, with Guerrieri not taking the fight to Borković, who claimed his first win in the series and first on the Circuito da Guia, 3.5 seconds ahead of Guerrieri. Butti completed the podium, making it a GOAT Racing and Honda 1-2-3.
Ma held on to take fourth as the leading Lynk & Co, ahead of Michelisz in fifth, the result being sufficient to give the Hungarian back-to-back titles as his only rival, Thed Björk, struggled to make progress in the reverse-grid race.
Azcona and Girolami finished behind team-mate Michelisz as his rear guar in sixth and seventh respectively, with Björk – who would have needed to finish ahead of Michelisz and out-score him by five points to win the title – taking eighth, never having really put up much of a challenge to those in front.
Martin Xie was the leading TCR China competitor in ninth, with Yann Ehrlacher completing the top ten, despite the Cyan Racing driver sliding into the barriers at Lisboa four laps from the finish.
Cao finished in 11th, giving the Chinese driver the TCR China title, ahead of Cyan Racing’s Santiago Urrutia in 12th, who came from the very back of the grid on slick tyres.
Volcano Motorsport’s John Filippi was 13th, whilst his team-mate Rob Huff ended the race in the pits after just one lap of racing with damage to the front of his Audi.
Cao’s only title contender in TCR China, Jason Zhang, had been running directly behind his rival until the final lap of the race, when the Teamwork driver clipped the barriers in the first sector and failed to take the chequered flag as a result.
Michelisz won the TCR World Tour title with 323 points, ahead of Björk (312), Azcona (295), Guerrieri (291), Ehrlacher (287) etc.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 62 | WT |  |
Dušan BORKOVIĆ | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 12 | 39:14.582 | 2:44.801 | 4 |
| 2 | 186 | WT |  |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 12 | 3.568 | 2:45.136 | 8 |
| 3 | 199 | WT |  |
Marco BUTTI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 12 | 4.108 | 2:45.696 | 12 |
| 4 | 155 | WT |  |
MA Qing Hua | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 12 | 6.546 | 2:48.365 | 3 |
| 5 | 105 | WT |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 11.007 | 2:51.407 | 6 |
| 6 | 196 | WT |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 11.314 | 2:51.167 | 9 |
| 7 | 129 | WT | |
Néstor GIROLAMI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 11.486 | 2:50.616 | 5 |
| 8 | 111 | WT |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 12 | 11.975 | 2:50.622 | 10 |
| 9 | 55 | CN | |
Martin XIE Xin Zhe | MacPro Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 12 | 12.484 | 2:50.146 | 17 |
| 10 | 168 | WT |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 12 | 14.372 | 2:50.013 | 7 |
| 11 | 1 | CN | |
Martin CAO Hongwei | Hyundai N | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 17.774 | 2:52.603 | 2 |
| 12 | 112 | WT |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 12 | 18.200 | 2:45.023 | 32 |
| 13 | 127 | WT | |
John FILIPPI | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 19.326 | 2:52.103 | 18 |
| 14 | 3 | CN |  |
Andy YAN Cheuk Wai | Hyundai N | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 21.834 | 2:53.735 | 1 |
| 15 | 9 | CN | |
David ZHU Dai Wei | Lynk & Co Teamwork Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 12 | 22.405 | 2:53.623 | 11 |
| 16 | 2 | CN | |
Rainey HE Xiaole | Hyundai N | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 25.749 | 2:54.115 | 19 |
| 17 | 12 | CN | |
Sunny WONG Yat Shing | Lynk & Co Teamwork Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 12 | 27.737 | 2:54.537 | 20 |
| 18 | 72 | CN | |
Juan Carlos ZHU | Lynk & Co Teamwork Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 12 | 28.472 | 2:54.561 | 21 |
| 19 | 28 | CN | |
LO Sze Ho | Evolve Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 29.511 | 2:54.779 | 28 |
| 20 | 66 | CN | |
LI Guang Hua | 326 Racing Team | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 12 | 33.282 | 2:55.838 | 24 |
| 21 | 51 | CN | |
WU Yifan | 326 Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 33.955 | 2:55.179 | 27 |
| 22 | 11 | CN | |
Gary KWOK | MacPro Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 12 | 42.535 | 2:59.370 | 25 |
| 23 | 95 | CN | |
HU Heng | GYT Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 46.844 | 3:01.827 | 26 |
| 24 | 87 | CN | |
MAN Siu Ming | Evolve Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 12 | 53.191 | 3:01.745 | 31 |
| 25 | 82 | AS |  |
Dypo FITRAMADHAN | Delta Garage Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 56.661 | 3:03.850 | 30 |
| 26 | 56 | AS | |
Benny SANTOSO | Hyundai N by Z.Speed | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 1:03.154 | 3:02.724 | 29 |
| 27 | 14 | AS |  |
HWANG Doyun | Hyundai N by Z.Speed | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 1:04.206 | 2:53.737 | 23 |
| 28 | 36 | CN | |
Jason ZHANG Zhi Qiang | Lynk & Co Teamwork Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 11 | + 1 LAP | 2:52.983 | 13 |
| 29 | 52 | CN | |
LAI Jing Wen | 326 Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 11 | + 1 LAP | 2:56.111 | 22 |
| R | 69 | AS |  |
Max HART | Hyundai N by Z.Speed | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | DNF | 2:50.738 | 16 |
| R | 179 | WT |  |
Rob HUFF | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 3 | DNF | 3:30.965 | 15 |
| R | 18 | AS | |
ZHANG Zhen Dong | Hyundai N by Z.Speed | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 3 | DNF | 3:30.684 | 14 |