Rainey He and Rodolfo Ávila win Jiangsu Races 1 & 2 for MG

MG has won the first two of the four-race Jiangsu TCR China weekend, with Rainey He controlling the field in Race 1 and Rodolfo Ávila prevailing in Race 2, leading an MG 1-2-3.
The MG 6 cars started 1-2-3-4 on the grid in both races, but in both races, the Teamwork Motorsport Lynk & Co 03 of Ma Qing Hua was able to make up one spot at the start.
He led from pole position in Race 1 ahead of Sun Chao and Ávila, while the fourth MG of Zhang Zhen Dong was shuffled back after contact and dropped to eighth; it had the rest of the race to fight his way back up the order.
On the second lap, Chao and Ávila swapped second place between them, with Ávila the best-placed MG driver in the championship, while three laps later, Ma was able to close down Chao’s MG and get past at the final corner and move up to the final podium position.
The race was soon suspended behind the safety car after Zhang Zi Yi’s Autohome Racing Team Lynk & Co ended up in a gravel trap on lap nine.
Ma was hounding Ávila’s MG for second when the race restarted on lap 14, while Zhang Zhen Dong had now recovered all the way up to fifth, with Chao letting his teammate through on lap 17.
Ma eventually made it past Ávila with just one lap to spare, getting ahead of the Macanese driver with a move down the inside at Turn 10.
He went on to win the race, while Ma’s second place allowed him to stretch his points lead to 32 over Ávila.
In Race 2, the top four were reversed, which still meant the MG cars occupied the top four grid spots. Ma briefly passed He’s MG for fourth, but He was able to get back past before the end of the lap, while further back, Zhang Zi Yi’s Lynk & Co was knocked out wide at Turn 1 after contact with Yan Chuang’s Volkswagen Golf.
Up front, Ávila had taken the lead ahead of Chao and Zhang Zhen Dong, but Chao soon let teammate Zhang in front of him.
Ma re-passed He for fourth at the end of lap three at the final corner, and then closed up to Chao, passing him on lap 11, while on the same lap, Yan Chuang’s Golf GTI understeered off into a gravel trap and the safety car was called again.
At the restart on lap 17, second-placed Zhang Zhen Dong held back the field, allowing Ávila to get some clear air, which also gave Chao the opportunity to attack and get back ahead of Ma for third at Turn 2.
Ma was able to have one last lunge on Chao to try and get back on the podium on the final lap, but wasn’t successful, with both Chao and Ma making contact but still able to cross the finish line, with He almost getting past the pair of them.
Ávila comfortably won the race ahead of Zhang and Chao, but after the race the Stewards imposed a 5-second penalty on Chao for the incident at the last corner who Ma who was promoted to third.
Ma continues to lead the standings on 130 points, now 27 points clear of Ávila heading into tomorrow’s Races 3 and 4 that will start at 09:48 and 16:28 local times respectively (02:48 and 09:28 CET); both will be streamed live at www.tcr-series.com. 

Race 1
1. Rainey He (MG XPower, MG 6), 28 laps
2. Ma Qing Hua (Teamwork Motorsport, Lynk & Co 03), 2.706
3. Rodolfo Ávila MG XPower, MG 6), 3.858
4. Zhang Zhen Dong (MG XPower, MG 6), 4.258
5. Sun Chao (MG XPower, MG 6), 6.908

Race 2
1. Rodolfo Ávila MG XPower, MG 6), 24 laps
2. Zhang Zhen Dong (MG XPower, MG 6), 2.753
3. Ma Qing Hua (Teamwork Motorsport, Lynk & Co 03), 7.522
4. Rainey He (MG XPower, MG 6), 7.754
5. Filipe de Souza (M.A. Motorsport, Audi RS 3 LMS), 10.315

TCR China – Championship standings
1. Ma Qing Hua 130 pts; 2. Rodolfo Ávila 103; 3. Rainey He 67

TCR Asia North – Championship standings
1. Ma Qing Hua 179 pts; 2. Rodolfo Ávila 147; 3. Rainey He 94

Picture: TCR China