Photo: TCR Asia

Luca Engstler dominates the first TCR Asia race of 2018 in Malaysia

Luca Engstler won his first TCR Asia race at Sepang, Malaysia, leading the race throughout from pole position to win by 1.5 seconds ahead of team-mate Mitchell Cheah in his Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR.

Engstler had a good launch from pole, while Lo Ho was able to move his Maximum Racing Honda Civic TCR from fourth to second at first at the first corner, passing the second and third place Volkswagen Golfs of Cheah and Diego Moran, but the two drivers quickly re-passed the Hong Kong driver through the next two turns and began to pull away.

On the second lap came the only retirement of the race when Ivan Szeto slid off into the gravel with a technical issue in his Maximum Honda Civic, while Chariya Nuya lost sixth position in his Billionaire Boys Racing Honda Civic to R Engineering’s Abdul Kaathhir, also in a Honda Civic at the final corner.

Up front, Engstler began to pull away from his team-mates, while there was soon bad news for Diego Moran in the #32 Volkswagen, as the stewards handed the Ecuadorian a drive-through penalty for a starting procedure breach, which he wouldn’t serve until lap eight.

Nuya would lose a further spot to Vattana Motorsport’s Pattarapol Vongprai on the same lap, as Moran would rejoin the race in tenth, but would gain one spot before the race was over to finish in ninth position.

Engstler won the race after 11 laps by 1.5 seconds over Cheah, with Lo Ho taking the final spot on the podium, with Akash Nandy and Abdul Kaathir in the R Engineering Honda Civics fourth and fifth.

Vongprai was sixth ahead of Nuya, with five Hondas locking out third to seventh, with Nattavid Leewattanavaragul the best-placed SEAT in eighth, with Engstler Volkswagen’s Diego Moran and the Elegant Racing SEAT of Wong Kiang Kuan completing the top ten.

The second race follows at 16:00 MYT (10:00 CET), with Leewattanavaragul starting from pole position in his SEAT León TCR.