Duncan Huisman wins the Scirocco Masters in Macau

Duncan Huisman won the Volkswagen Scirocco R China Masters race in Macau, leading Nicola Larini and Mike Conway, with a number of top contenders eliminated in a first lap crash.

Alain Menu started from pole position, but down the order there was a crash on the start-finish straight as Steve Soper and Stefan Johansson came together for the second time this weekend. Soper was forced wide into the right-hand side at the start by Johansson, and then bounced back across the track into the Swede’s car. Both were out on the spot.

Up front, Huisman had passed Menu for the lead with Larini moving up into second. By the end of the lap both Menu and Emanuele Pirro had stopped with damage to their cars following contact, with Menu running into the back of Pirro when the Italian went off at Moorish.

The safety car was out for the second and third laps of the race while the debris of Soper and Johansson’s cars was cleared from the circuit.

When the race restarted, Tim Harvey was able to move up past Danish driver Thomas Fjordbach coming out of Lisboa for third, with Mike Conway following into fourth position further on the lap.

Harvey was now having to defend against Conway, holding him off for two more laps before Conway was able to dive down the inside at Turn 1 and up into third at the start of lap seven.

Huisman went on to win by 1.5 seconds over Larini, taking his fifth career win the at the Guia circuit. Conway completed the podium in third.

Tim Harvey, David Brabham, Thomas Fjordbach, Andrea Reggiani, Ni Amorim, Julian Bailey and Keisuke Kunimoto completed the top ten.