Luca Engstler dominates the first TCR China race

After outpacing the TCR China field in Qualifying, Luca Engstler dominated the first race at Ningbo. The German youngster drove his Hyundai to take the lead at the start and then consistently created a gap, crossing the finishing line 4.5 seconds before Daniel Lloyd.
During the first lap, Martin Xie tried to overtake Engstler who was able to close all the gaps, Lloyd benefited from the situation and passed his teammate Xie for P2, but Engstler retained the lead and began to pull away.
André Couto struggled to keep the fourth position, but eventually managed to reject Huang Chu Han’s attacks.
For the rest of the race, Lloyd progressively lost contact from Engstler; Xie found himself chased by Couto and Huang, while Zhang Zhen Dong cruised in sixth position with his MG.
The most interesting battle was that for the seventh position between Kenneth Look, Yan Chuang, Edward Chen and Rodolfo Ávila who swapped places several times. During the last lap Chen and Ávila made contact and so Look finished in P7 from Chen, Chuang and Ávila.
In the standings, Huang has retained the leadership, but Lloyd has closed the gap to three points only.
Race 2 will start at 13:15 local time (07:15 CET); live streaming at www.tcr-series.tv.

Race 1
1. Luca Engstler (Team Engstler, Hyundai i30 N), 13 laps
2. Daniel Lloyd (MacPro Racing, Honda Civic FK8), 4.528
3. Martin Xie (MacPro Racing, Honda Civic FK8), 14.360
4. André Couto (MacPro Racing, Honda Civic FK8), 16.996
5. Huang Chu Han (Team NewFaster, Audi RS 3 LMS), 19.075

Championship points
1. Huang 108 pts; 2. Lloyd 105; 3. Look 79