Abdul Kaathir wins Race 1 at Zhuhai as leaders collide on last lap

Abdul Kaathir won the first race of the day on the TCR Asia Series’ second visit this year to Zhuhai, taking advantage of a last lap incident to take his first win, while pole-sitter Kantadhee Kusiri ran into trouble.

Kusiri started from pole position in the Engstler Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR, but the Thai driver crawled away from his position at the start with an apparent technical issue, with the two Hondas of Abdul Kaathir and WS Lai and straight up to first and second.

Kaathir ran wide at Turn 4 on the first lap, which allowed Lai into the lead with Jasper Thong through into second in the first of the Phoenix Asia Audi RS 3s, while older brother Shaun was soon able to overtake Kaathir for third on the following lap.

Lai led the way but the two Audis and his Honda team-mate were close behind during the early stages.

Jasper Thong’s challenge ended on lap six as the Hong Kong driver headed down the pit lane and rejoined further down the order, eventually finishing in fourth position.

This left Shaun Thong on Lai’s tail, who kept a close watch before suddenly making an aggressive run on the final lap, running side-by-side during the first half of the lap, but the two came together and ran off the circuit, with Thong’s Audi ending up stuck in the gravel.

Lai was able to rejoin, but finished seven seconds down on his team-mate Abdul Kaathir, with Engstler’s Diego Moran taking the final step on podium.

Moran now leads the championship by seven points over Lai, with the reversed grid second race following at 4:15pm local time, 10:15 CET.