Macau WTCC: Jose Maria Lopez dominates race one for Citroen
Macau debutant Jose Maria Lopez led throughout the opening World Touring Car Championship race at the Guia circuit to take an untroubled 10th victory of the 2014 season
The recently crowned WTCC champion made a perfect start from pole position, but his Citroen team-mates Sebastien Loeb and Yvan Muller, who lined up second and third on the grid, were immediately passed by the surging Zengo Honda of Norbert Michelisz.
Outgoing champion Muller suffered a particularly sluggish move off the line, and slipped to fifth place behind the factory JAS Hondas of Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro.
As Lopez staged a break, nine-time World Rally champion Loeb produced a feisty attack on Michelisz.
The Frenchman had a probing look on the outside of the Civic at Lisboa on lap three, only to run wide and be overtaken by works Civics and a recovering Muller.
Thereafter, there was no change of order among the top six, as Michelisz valiantly held his five pursuers at bay.
Fourth qualifier Tom Coronel lost three places on the opening lap, but took top Chevrolet honours in seventh ahead of the fourth factory C-Elysee of Moscow race-winner Ma Qing Hua.
Campos's difficult Macau weekend continued. After the Spanish team had been forced to withdraw series returnee Pepe Oriola following a qualifying accident, both of the its Hong Kong SEAT Leon TC2 drivers were involved in separate shunts on lap five of race one.
Henry Kwong sustained minor front-end damage at Moorish, before William Lok crashed out at the Melco hairpin. Kwong rejoined the race, only to move across on the unfortunate Mehdi Bennani when being lapped on the penultimate lap.
Shanghai reversed-grid winner Bennani, running ninth, was sent spinning into the barriers on the pit straight, handing the position to six-time Macau WTCC race winner Rob Huff.
Bennani will not start race two, and Tarquini is also absent from the grid. The Italian is believed to be unwell and missed the race one podium.
Campos regular Hugo Valente pitted at the mid-way point, possibly considering preserving his machine for race two where he will start race from pole position.
RESULTS - 10 LAPS:
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Jose Maria Lopez | Citroen Total WTCC | Citroen | 24m50.183s |
2 | Norbert Michelisz | Zengo Motorsport | Honda | 2.741s |
3 | Gabriele Tarquini | Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda | 3.661s |
4 | Tiago Monteiro | Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda | 4.055s |
5 | Yvan Muller | Citroen Total WTCC | Citroen | 4.589s |
6 | Sebastien Loeb | Citroen Total WTCC | Citroen | 5.186s |
7 | Tom Coronel | ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet | 9.338s |
8 | Ma Qinghua | Citroen Total WTCC | Citroen | 10.008s |
9 | Rob Huff | LADA Sport Lukoil | Lada | 15.548s |
10 | Gianni Morbidelli | All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport | Chevrolet | 19.201s |
11 | James Thompson | LADA Sport Lukoil | Lada | 19.947s |
12 | Tom Chilton | ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet | 27.894s |
13 | Mikhail Kozlovskiy | LADA Sport Lukoil | Lada | 52.601s |
14 | Franz Engstler | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | BMW | 1m23.715s |
15 | Rene Munnich | All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport | Chevrolet | 1m59.115s |
16 | John Filippi | Campos Racing | SEAT | 2m02.667s |
17 | Filipe Souza | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | BMW | 2m04.627s |
18 | Ka Lok Mak | RPM Racing Team | BMW | 1 Lap |
19 | Mehdi Bennani | Proteam Racing | Honda | Collision |
- | Henry Kwong | Campos Racing | SEAT | Disqualified |
- | Hugo Valente | Campos Racing | Chevrolet | Not classified |
- | William Lok | Campos Racing | SEAT | Retirement |
- | Pepe Oriola | Campos Racing | Chevrolet | Withdrawn |
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