Rob Huff wins his eighth Guia Race of Macau

Rob Huff won his eighth race in Macau, never leaving the lead from pole position, with Jordi Gené finishing second in his Craft-Bamboo Lukoil SEAT and championship leader Stefano Comini third for Target Competition, despite the challenge mounted by title rival Pepe Oriola.

At the start of the race Huff held the lead despite attacks from both Comini and Gené, both having storming starts from the second row on the grid to run side-by-side through the first turn.

The Swiss almost took the lead, but elected to play it safe at Mandarin, which let the Brit and the Spaniard through, with Oriola in fourth.

A huge crash for Target Competition’s Francisco Mora at Mandarin, with his SEAT sliding midway through the corner, started more carnage with Prince Racing’s Kenneth Lau hitting Craft-Bamboo’s Frank Yu before ending up smashing into Mora’s car, luckily with no serious injuries for all drivers.

After three safety car laps the race restarted, and Huff made sure he had enough of a gap not to be caught out by Gené, with Comini resisting Oriola’s assault and staying in third ahead of his rival. Meanwhile WestCoast Racing’s Gianni Morbidelli was in a close fight with team-mate Kevin Gleason, who had slid down the order at the start, with Jordi Oriola behind the duo.

The fight at the front was very close all race long, with Gené keeping the pack tight. Despite Oriola’s best efforts, though, Comini was able to retain third place. Behind them a fantastic couple of overtakes from Jordi Oriola saw the young Spaniard get up to fifth, taking Morbidelli around the outside at Mandarin.

Rob Huff therefore won, finishing eight seconds clear of Gené, with Comini resisting one last attack from Oriola at Melco, which included a little nudge from the Spaniard. Jordi Oriola finished fifth ahead of Gianni Morbidelli and Kevin Gleason, with Andrea Belicchi in eighth for Target Competition. Lorenzo Veglia finished ninth after a consistent race, with Sergey Afanasyev completing the top ten for Craft-Bamboo Lukoil.

Comini is now seven points ahead of Oriola in the championship, with Gené officially out of contention despite finishing ahead of his rivals, while Craft-Bamboo Racing continue to lead the teams’ standings, now 22 points clear.

Race 2 follows imminently with the grid as Race 1’s result.