Martin Xie lands double win at Ningbo

Martin Xie landed a double win as TCR China raced at Ningbo, closing in on points leader Jason Zhang.

The MacPro Racing Honda driver started from pole position in the first race and headed the field as the lights went out ahead of Hyundai N’s Martin Cao and Lynk & Co Teamwork driver David Zhu.

Points leader Zhang fought hard in the midfield, managing to pass Hyundai driver Andy Yan towards the end of the race to secure sixth place.

Xie won the race just three tenths ahead of Cao and seven tenths ahead of Zhu while Rainey He was a distant fourth.

The second race saw Yan starting from pole and the Hyundai driver took the lead at the start.

Lynk & Co 03 TCR driver Zhang made a strong start and moved into the lead past Yan on the third lap.

Honda driver Xie was also on the move early on in the race and closed in on leading driver Zhang towards the end.

Zhang then suddenly slowed down with two laps left, losing the lead to Xie and second place to Cao.

Xie won the second race with a margin of close to three seconds over Cao while Zhang was close behind in third.

Hyundai driver Yan crossed the finishing line in fourth but was dropped to fifth behind Xiao Kun Peng following a grid infringement penalty.

Zhang keeps his points lead, six points ahead of Cao and 12 points ahead of Xie.

The next TCR China race takes place at Zhuzhou on October 18-20 together with the FIA TCR World Tour.