JUNE 14 2024 – RACE REPORT SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT
Richard LI finished on the podium in both TCR China Challenge races at Shanghai, while Paul POON scored a top ten on his switch to the highly-competitive Championship class.
Qualifying
Richard LI placed his Teamwork Motorsport Lynk & Co 03 TCR seventh on the grid for the first race of the weekend, while Paul POON moved his Audi RS 3 LMS from the Challenge series to the Championship field this weekend and qualified in an excellent 13th place in the highly-competitive field, missing the top 12 cut-off by just three-tenths of a second, although he was later promoted to 12th when a driver ahead was disqualified, this meant he wasn’t able to take part in the Q2 session.
Race 3
LI made an excellent start in the Challenge race and was straight up to fourth place. LI then managed to hold off the cars behind until he gathered pace in the final laps and closed down and grabbed third position on the final lap to score his second consecutive podium finish in only his third ever race.
POON started his race from 12th and was making good progress, moving his Audi up to tenth place on the fourth lap just after the first of three safety car periods.
In an eventful race, POON kept out of trouble to cross the line in tenth position.
Race 4
POON’s second race started well, with the Audi driver up to tenth by the end of the opening lap, up two places.
POON was up to more spots after the controversial incident between Lynk & Co Teamwork Motorsport team-mate Juan Carlos ZHU and the Hyundai of Andy YAN which caused a safety car.
Unfortunately, POON’s race came to end soon after the restart when he was crashed into by a Honda at Turn 14 and came back to the pits to retire with terminal damage.
LI’s race in the Challenge class was an exceptional performance, and also a lost opportunity for victory.
From second on the grid for the reversed grid heat, LI took the lead in his Lynk & Co and was holding his own until he was punted into a spin at Turn 2 just after the first safety car and fell to the back of the pack, and some time down.
It looked like his race was over, but more safety cars brought him back into the mix and worked his way all the way up to sixth place by the final lap.
This became fourth place when two of the top three contenders collided, before LI was handed the final podium position when the driver that had spun him off was put behind him in the final order.
It was therefore an excellent weekend all round for the independent operation of Teamwork Motorsport, with Richard LI continuing to string together a series of podiums whilst showing genuine race win-capable pace, and with Macau master Paul POON holding his own against the factory-backed drivers in the TCR China Championship class.
The TCR China Championship and Challenge series get underway again in a little under two months’ time on August 9-11 at the Zhejiang circuit near Hangzhou.
