Martin Xie and David Zhu share Shanghai victories
Martin Xie and David Zhu claimed one win each in the second TCR China round of 2024 at the Shanghai International Circuit.
The first race saw Xie of MacPro Racing (Honda) starting from pole position and headed the field as the lights went out ahead of Lynk & Co driver Jason Zhang.
The race was interrupted three times by the safety car and the first session came on the first lap as Audi driver Wu Yi Fan spun and stopped on track.
The safety car came back on track three laps later as Juan Carlos Zhu (Lynk & Co) came to a halt on track with an engine issue. The third session came on lap seven as Honda driver Victor Chan Chun Leung stopped on track with an issue.
The field resumed racing with just one lap of racing, with Xie winning the race less than a second ahead of Teamwork Motorsport driver Zhang.
Zhang’s team-mate David Zhu completed the podium, 1.6 seconds adrift.
The second race saw Hyundai driver Andy Yan starting from pole but was beaten into turn one by Hyundai N team-mate Martin Cao.
The race was once again interrupted by several safety car sessions, with the first one being caused by Zhang Hong Yu who spun off track on the first lap.
The second safety car session came as Juan Carlos Zhu (Lynk & Co) and Yan (Hyundai) came together while fighting for second place, spinning off into the barriers and retirement.
The restart saw David Zhu snatching the lead from Cao, a lead he was to keep for the remaining part of the race.
The third and final safety car session came as Paul Poon and Victor Chan came together at the end of the race.
The final restart saw the fight for third escalating, as Zhang and Lo Sze Ho came together, resulting in a spin for Lo. But it wasn’t over for Zhang who was overtaken for third by Honda driver Henry Ho on the last lap.
Zhu (Lynk & Co) won the race close to four seconds ahead of Cao (Hyunda) while Ho (Honda) was a distant third.
Zhang heads the standings on 132 points, with Cao and Zhu close behind on 130 and 129 points respectively.
