SEAT driver Stefano Comini takes TCR crown in hectic Macau race
Stefano Comini won the Macau Guia touring car race, and with it the inaugural TCR International crown, after a clash between Rob Huff and Jordi Gene triggered a massive pile-up
TCR newcomer Huff had dominated the weekend on a track on which he is renowned as a master, romping to victory in the qualification race (which counted for full TCR points) in his West Coast Racing Honda to notch up his eighth Macau win.
Huff had survived a three-abreast moment at the start of the race, in which he was squeezed between Comini and Jordi Gene at the Reservoir kink, before sneaking ahead and pulling away to win.
Meanwhile, Gene's Craft Bamboo SEAT held off the Target Competition SEAT of Comini and the second Craft Bamboo SEAT of Pepe Oriola, Comini's main title rival.
At the start of the second race - which carried the Guia title - Gene slipped up the inside of Huff into Reservoir, only for the two to collide and fly into the barriers on the outside, where they were collected heavily by numerous cars.
"He obviously didn't want to leave my any room," said Huff. "It's stupid, because he didn't have to worry about me [in the championship].
"There was a corner to be turned and he didn't turn it - luckily I looked in my mirror and braced myself [for the impacts from behind]."
At the restart, Comini came under huge fire from Oriola, the two making contact numerous times as two more Target SEATs - one driven by Oriola's younger brother Jordi and the other by Andrea Belicchi - made it a four-car train.
It came to a head three laps from the end, when Oriola Sr shoved Comini repeatedly on the brakes into Lisboa. His SEAT then cried enough as he exited San Francisco Bend and he parked it at Maternity Bend.
Simultaneously, Oriola Jr slowed and eventually retired, elevating Belicchi to second and the Team Engstler VW Golf of Mikhail Grachev to third.
Gianni Morbidelli recovered from a drive-through penalty to take fourth place in his West Coast Honda, with the SEATs of Rodolfo Avila and Robb Holland rounding out the top six.
Just seven cars finished from an initial field of 30 that took to the track for Thursday's free practice session, when Alain Menu was sidelined for the weekend after terminal engine problems struck his Top Run Subaru.
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