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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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