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Rob Huff takes dominant victory in Shanghai Race 1

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Rob Huff has won on his first appearance in the 2017 China Touring Car Championship season, leading from lights-to-flag to take victory at the Shanghai International Circuit by almost seven seconds ahead of Jason Zhang’s Kia K3 2.0T.

The 37-year-old started from pole position in the Shanghai VW 333 Racing Lamando GTS, and quickly began to pull away from the field at almost a second a lap in the early stages of the race.

Darryl O’Young had a great start in the BAIC Senova D70 and went from 12th to fifth at the end of the first lap, but found himself trapped behind the Kia of Alex Fontana, who’d lost a spot to the BAIC Senova of David Zhu on the first lap, and the Hong Kong driver was unable to make further progress.

Martin Cao meanwhile was helping turn around the Changan Ford FRD Team’s fortunes, with the Ford squad having been hit by a change in Balance of Performance this weekend, as well as carrying success ballast, with the Chinese driver up to eighth from 13th by the end of lap two.

Cao would be passed by title rival Zheng Zhen Dong’s Volkswagen on lap five, but he was able to finish in eighth after trouble for O’Young on the final two laps, as he dropped from fifth to tenth in the final classification.

Up front, no one could stop Huff, with the Briton winning the race by 6.874 seconds over Zhang’s Kia, with David Zhu completing the podium.

The other Fords were well outside the top ten, with Rainey He swapping places with Andy Yan on the final lap to take 15th, with Yan 16th and James Nash 17th.

The top 12 are reversed for Race 2, which will put Juan Carlos Zhu’s BAIC Senova on pole position, ahead of Jim Ka To’s Kia, with Darryl O’Young third on the grid.