Andy Yan extends points lead with Race 1 victory in Shanghai

Andy Yan has extended his lead in the TCR Asia Series drivers’ championship after victory in Race 1 at the Shanghai International Circuit, after the Engstler Volkswagen driver powered into the lead at the start and never looked back.

Team Thailand’s Tin Sritrai started from pole position in the Honda Civic TCR, but although the Thai driver had a good start, Yan made his move down the inside into Turn 1 and took the lead and quickly began building a lead, while Michael Ho moved up ahead of Champ Motorsport team-mate Henry Ho at the start.

The two Hos swapped back positions on lap two, while Sritrai initially fell two seconds behind Yan, but the Honda driver quickly closed up and took his one shot to take the lead on lap four, but Sritrai made a mistake at Turn 6 and nearly ran into the back of Yan’s Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR, going off circuit at the exit of the corner.

Sritrai was now back to two seconds behind and wouldn’t trouble Yan again for the rest of the race, with the gaps remaining consistent throughout, with Sritrai just able to close up by half a second with a late charge on the final lap.

The main battle was for fifth position, with Teamwork Motorsport’s Kevin Tse in the Volkswagen Golf fighting a rear-guard action against the other Engstler Volkswagen of Filipe de Souza. De Souza made two principal attempts to pass Tse on laps eight and nine, running side-by-side at Turn 7, but was ultimately unsuccessful.

Neric Wei Chaoyin finished seventh on his TCR Asia Series debut driving the Son Veng Racing Volkswagen Golf, with Terence Tse the best-placed of the SEAT drivers in eighth.

Bill O’Brien had a quiet race on his way to ninth in the second of the Teamwork Volkswagens with Viper Niza Racing’s Douglas Khoo having an eventful run to tenth after stalling on the grid and several spins, seeing him finish almost a minute behind O’Brien.

“Tin is very fast, as we know from qualifying,” said race winner Yan. “Before the start, I reminded myself to never give up, and at the start I had a chance to overtake him and I had to remind myself to concentrate.”

Just ten cars took part in the race with the FRD Motorsport Ford Focus of Kenneth Ma not making the start.

Yan leads the championship by 53 points over Henry Ho as a result of his win, with Tin Sritrai just five points further behind.

Race 2 follows with the reversed grid race, with Roadstar Racing’s Terence Tse on pole and Race 1 winner and championship leader Andy Yan set to start from ninth position.