Couto claims a comfortable win in Ningbo Race 1

André Couto converted his pole position in a comfortable victory in TCR China’s first sprint race at Ningbo International Speedpark.
On his first appearance at in a TCR competition and at the wheel of the MacPro Racing Honda Civic FK8, the Macanese driver was able to pull away after the start at the rate of 1.5 second per lap. Eventually he completed the ten-lap race with a winning margin of 16 seconds ahead of the CUS Volkswagen Golf GTI driven by Zhu Zhen Yu.
The podium was completed by Leo Racing’s Li Lin in another Golf GTI. After taking briefly the second position after a good start, Li Lin lost it to Zhu Zhen Yu on lap two, but then managed to reject the final assault from another Golf GTI car, the TeamWork Motorsport’s driven by Alex Hui. 
Hui, started from fourth on the grid, but lost the position to Tang You Xi in the second MacPro Racing Honda; he was then able to move back to fourth on lap 5 and closed the gap from Li Lin. On the final lap Hui attempted an overtaking manoeuvre, but the two cars made contact and Hui’s slowed down and finished fifth.
Also on the last lap, Tang You Xi retired with a technical issue.
The second sprint races will start at 17:10 local (11:10 CET); live streaming at www.tcr-series.com.