Ma Qing Hua gets his first win with Lynk & Co in TCR World Tour

Cyan Racing’s Ma Qing Hua took his first win in the Lynk & Co 03 TCR in TCR World Tour’s reversed-grid race at El Pinar in Uruguay.

The Chinese driver, in his Chinese car, started from pole and had to handle early drama as BRC Racing’s Mikel Azcona behind made contact with Hua’s team-mate Yann Ehrlacher and he then made contact with the leader.

All three emerged unscathed, with Azcona taking second place from Ehrlacher a few corners later and the top three positions remaining the same for the rest of the 21-lap race.

Azcona pressured Ma for three laps, then the leader started to pull away before the safety car appeared on lap eight due to a tyre barrier needing to be reconstructed. That grouped everyone back together, but on the lap 10 restart Ma managed to gap himself from his chasers.

It was like a qualifying lap every lap thereon, but Azcona managed to close in and was a third of a second behind when the safety car was called out again as a Peugeot driver came to a halt on track. After the second restart there were two laps of racing, and Ma won by 0.685 seconds.

Ehrlacher had no answer to the top two’s pace but kept his points lead going by finishing third, and further back Rob Huff beat Comtoyou Racing team-mate Frédéric Vervisch to fourth.

Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk and Santiago Urrutia charged up the order from ninth and 10th on the reversed grid, eventually finishing sixth and seventh. They had a tense battle with BRC’s Norbert Michelisz, who finished just behind them, and it included contact just before the second safety car period.

Néstor Girolami was passed by both Cyan Raacing drivers and finished ninth, with a big margin to TCR returnee Esteban Guerrieri in 10th. Although both were run by TCR South America teams, the highest placed driver scoring points in that series was actually Juan Angel Rosso in 11th.

Enrique Maglione was shown the black-and-orange flag multiple times during the race due to damage and eventually retired three laps from the end.

The next TCR World Tour race is next weekend at San Luis in Argentina.