Photo:

He Zi Yian leads Haima Z1 1-2 at the Shanghai Tianma circuit

By

Haima Z1 Racing’s He Zi Yian won his first China Touring Car Championship race at Tianma, leading team-mate Tomas Engström across the finish in the Super Cup 2.0T class race, with Teamwork Citroën driver Sunny Wong finishing third.

Alex Fontana had been due to start from pole position in the Kia K3, but the stewards had excluded him from qualifying after it was discovered the car had exceeded its permitted turbo boost limit, promoting He Zi to pole.

He Zi Yian led the race from start to finish, with a 1.4. second lead over Engström at the finish, while Fontana was involved in an incident with Changan Ford driver Andy Yan on the first lap, with both retiring from the race, with Yan’s title hopes seriously dented.

There was another incident on lap ten, as Juan Carlos Zhu in the BAIC Senova D60 came together with Linky Racing’s Dennis Zhang in the Audi A3, requiring the deployment of the safety car.

Rainey He finished fourth for Ford, and critically has taken the lead of the drivers’ championship from Volkswagen’s Zhang Zhen Dong, but with Zhang finishing eighth, the Shanghai VW 333 Racing driver will start from pole position for Race 2.