Cheah wins Race 1 as Engstler grabs the title
Local hero Mitchell Cheah made a triumphant comeback to TCR racing, claiming pole position and an authoritative race victory in TCR Malaysia finale at Sepang International Circuit. The 2018 TCR Asia vice-champion led from lights-to-flag, beating his teammate Luca Engstler who secured his third TCR champion crown after those won last year in TCR Middle East and TCR Asia.
KCMG team owner Paul Ip completed his best day ever in Touring Car competition by finishing third; he had qualified a brilliant fourth after even setting the fastest lap in the Q1 part of the session.
Kai Jordan, the only driver who was still in contention for the title fight before the race, spoiled his chances by making contact with Douglas Khoo during the second lap while they were fighting for the fourth position.
At the start, pole sitter Cheah and his Volkswagen Golf GTI sprinted to the lead, while Engstler’s Hyundai jumped from third on the grid to second, followed by Ip’s Honda Civic. After being a brilliant second in Qualifying, Khoo took a bad start in his CUPRA and find himself defending the fourth place from Jordan. The latter tried an overtaking manoeuvre on the outside line during lap 2, but the two cars clashed; Jordan retired with a broken rear right suspension, which meant that Engstler was champion, while Khoo lost one lap in the pits for repairs.
Martin Ryba, who had taken a great start from 11th on the grid, inherited the fourth position after the Khoo-Jordan incident, but he lost it to Mark Darwin moments later. The Slovak was then involved in a close battle with Kenneth Lau and Andrej Abaluev.
As Cheah managed to increase his leading margin over Engstler, the fight for the fifth place became red hot. Lau made a mistake on lap 6 and dropped behind Abaluev, however the Russian’s CUPRA made a mistake, dropped down the order and eventually retired.
Ryba made a mistake in the last turn and gave Lau the possibility to beat him on the line, taking fifth place by six thousandths of a second.
Race 2 will start tomorrow at 17:15 local time (10:15 CET) with the Prince Racing duo of Michael Choi and Kenneth Lau filling the front row of the top-eight reverse grid; live streaming at www.tcr-series.com and www.tcr-series.tv.
TCR Malaysia – Race 1
1. Mitchell Cheah (Liqui Moly Team Engstler, Volkswagen Golf GTI), 11 laps
2. Luca Engstler (Liqui Moly Team Engstler, Hyundai i30 N), 2.079
3. Paul Ip (KCMG, Honda Civic Type R FK7), 12.292
4. Mark Darwin (Liqui Moly Team Engstler, Volkswagen Golf GTI), 13.941
5. Kenneth Lau (Prince Racing, Honda Civic Type R FK7), 36.602
6. Martin Ryba (Brutal Fish Racing, Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR), 36.608
Championship points
1. Engstler 117.5 pts; 2. Jordan 56; 3. Ryba 43; 4. Ip 38.5; 5. Khoo 37
