Great start to the season after a win and two podiums
Alex Hui and Sunny Wong leave the Zhuhai International Circuit with the lead of the 2018 TCR China Touring Car Championship drivers’ title after a fantastic first weekend, with a podium each and the final race victory with their Öhlins-backed Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR.
The two drivers both qualified on the front row for their respective sprint races, the fastest of the Volkswagen contingent at the race weekend and converted these into a pair of second place finishes to score key points in the championship.
The team then lined up second for the reversed grid third race of the weekend, after an incident-packed second race saw almost half the field taken out.
Alex Hui had good pace at the start and kept the Volkswagen in touch with the race leaders before his pit stop, while after the stop, with the team opting to change to a new set of Michelin tyres due to the wear that Hui noticed during his stint, Sunny Wong was able to close in and pass both the NewFaster Audi and the new Honda Civic of the MacPro Racing team to take a sensational victory, firmly putting the team in the lead of the championship heading to the next round.
Alex Hui said:
“This weekend was a little bit harder for us than last year because we’re currently running just one car, so it’s harder to work on the set-up or try different things. In each qualifying and each race we were experimenting, so by the end of weekend we are quite satisfied with our pace. We weren’t the fastest, but our approach and tyres choices made us consistent and reliable. We’ll be back here at Zhuhai in June, so will consolidate our findings and plan for the next outing.”
Sunny Wong said:
“Well done for the entire team with their work in the heat here in Zhuhai. The championship is still long, but we’ve had a good first weekend, leading the championship. Unfortunately, that also means next time we will have a little success ballast added to our car. That means it’s important to stay consistent, maximise our performance and results will speak for themselves.
“Today’s win was a good example of teamwork. During Alex’s stint he was feeding back how the tyres and the car was handling so that before I got into the car I’d have some understanding of how the car and tyres would behave.
“After the stop, I just kept driving until I could see the leader getting closer. Our engineer told me I was quicker every lap so I just kept pushing and with six laps to go I passed the leading car.”
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Zhuhai Race 1 result:
1 – Henry Ho – MacPro Racing Honda Civic TCR – 9 laps
2 – Sunny Wong – Teamwork Motorsport Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR – 0.861
3 – Wang Hao – NewFaster Audi RS 3 LMS – 4.468
4 – Lai Wee Sing – DRT Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR – 6.352
5 – Lo Sze Ho – D Garage – Kia Cee’d TCR – 9.113
