[News-Oxcart Network]
From 13 to 15 September, the WTCR-FIA World Touring Car Championship was held at the Ningbo International Circuit in China, during which 13 teams from around the world played two qualifying races and three main races.
Ningbo Station, as the only sub-station race held by the 2019 wtcr in Chinese mainland, the first Chinese brand Lynk & Co team to compete in the world's top touring car event, and the first Chinese driver Ma Qinghua to enter f1 (representing the mulsanne srl team), as a local team and runner, have received the highest attention and the warmest cheers on the scene!
Ningbo Circuit is only a ten-minute drive from Lynk & Co, and the Lynk & Co team has taken advantage of the time, location, and people to win the podium three times in three main races. Winning two championships, a runner-up and a runner-up, a total of 104 points, directly topped the team's points leaderboard, 22 points ahead of the second place.
(Screenshot of the current team standings)
Chinese driver Ma Qinghua was not so lucky, finishing second in the first round of the main round and setting a record for the TCR circuit in the second qualifying round, but the next two rounds of the main race were unfortunately withdrawn early due to accidents.
(Ma Qinghua, the first Chinese driver to enter f1)
<b>#赛事回顾</b>
The following is a review of the two-day competition situation of WTCR Ningbo Station:
In the first qualifying session on the first morning, Lynk & Co's veteran Yvan Muller played well, winning pole position with a time of 1:50.848. Chinese driver Ma Qinghua finished second with a slight margin of 0.05 seconds.
At the beginning of the first round of the afternoon, after five red lights were extinguished, Yvan Muller, who started from pole position, successfully resisted the attack of Ma Qinghua behind him and locked his lead. Mikel Azcona, who came from THE SIT team in third place, started perfectly, but Ma Qinghua did not let his opponent succeed with his superb technique and constantly pressed mueller on the front throughout the 13 laps. But in the end, the experienced Yvan Muller managed to bring the championship back, Ma Qinghua was second in the way, and Mikel Azcona held the third place.
In the second qualifying session the next morning, Chinese driver Ma Qinghua was in good shape and made a full-time speed of 1:49.980 in the q1 stage, breaking the previous record of the tcr car at the Ningbo circuit. However, Ma Qinghua's flight circle in the final stage of q2 was blocked by the slow car of the nestor girolami, and the collision caused the vehicle to spin out of control, and the helpless q2 regretted being out. Yvan Muller and Yann Ehrlacher from Lynk & Co team finished in the top five of Q2 and advanced to Q3. The two uncles and nephews who started the car at the end of the third quarter cooperated skillfully, seized the opportunity at the right time, and won the pole position and the second place in one fell swoop.
After the race, the nestor girolami who blocked Ma Qinghua was punished, and the best time for the niner girolami to be q2 was cancelled due to the red flag in q2, and he will drop to 12th place in the second and third rounds of the main race. He was then sent off again in the second round for blocking Ma Qinghua, and finally started in the 17th place.
The second round of the main round was a chaotic battle, and the opening stage was a fierce fight, and 6 drivers withdrew from the first round, including Chinese driver Ma Qinghua. The safety car then went out and didn't resume until lap 6, which increased the race to 15 laps. In the next 6 laps, Lynk & Co's andy Priaulx led the way with the strong attacks of the two Hyundai drivers behind him, until lap 12, when they were overtaken by Hyundai's Gabriele Tarquini. Andy Priaulx was pressed inside and suffered a knock from another Hyundai driver, Norbert Michelisz, into the grass, causing Andy Priaulx to retire. In the end, Hyundai's Norbert Michelisz and Gabriele Tarquini finished first and second, and Lynk & Co's Yvan Muller overtook from 10th to third.
The third round of the main round can be jokingly called the "grudge game", and the race began, with Yvan Muller occupying the pole position and Yann Ehrlacher in second place starting well to hold the top two positions. Hyundai's Norbert Michelisz and Lynk & Co's Andy Priaulx made contact again during the race, but this time the balance tilted in favour of Lynk & Co, and Norbert Michelisz regretted losing the opportunity to hit the podium in the last round. Chinese driver Ma Qinghua was seriously damaged by a collision in the second round of the main race, and the emergency repair failed to catch up with the starting area, and the third round of the main race could only start from the maintenance area. However, Ma Qinghua drove the Alfa Romeo car all the way to the ninth place, but unfortunately contacted the nestor girolami again in the new round of entanglement and regrettably withdrew. In the end, Yvan Muller and Yann Ehrlacher's uncle and nephew of the Lynk & Co team won the championship and runner-up steadily, and hyundai team Gabriele Tarquini won the last place on the podium.
A month later, WTCR will be on its way to the Suzuka Circuit in Japan. Suzuka Track is a mix of high-speed and low-speed cornering, the most unique thing is its figure-of-eight mode, which provides the car with clockwise and counterclockwise movements, and is a track that tests the skills of the drivers.
(Suzuka Circuit, Japan)
【Text/Wu Chunming Part of the picture: wtcr official】