2014 FIA WTCC Race of China, Beijing

2014 FIA WTCC Race of China, Beijing

Race details
Round 9 of 12 in the 2014 World Touring Car Championship at Goldenport Park Circuit in Beijing, China.
Date	5 October, 2014
Location	Beijing, China
Course	Goldenport Park Circuit 2.391 kilometres (1.486 mi)
Race One
Laps 28 Pole position Driver Tom Chilton ROAL Motorsport Time 1:04.321 Podium First Tom Chilton ROAL Motorsport Second Yvan Muller Citroën Total WTCC Third José María López Citroën Total WTCC Fastest Lap Driver Tom Chilton ROAL Motorsport Time 1:05.382
Race Two
Laps 26 Podium First Robert Huff Lada Sport Second Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport Third Sébastien Loeb Citroën Total WTCC Fastest Lap Driver José María López Citroën Total WTCC Time 1:05:934

The 2014 FIA WTCC Race of China, Beijing was the ninth round of the 2014 World Touring Car Championship season and the fourth running of the FIA WTCC Race of China. It was the first of two rounds held in China in 2014, the second taking place at the Shanghai International Circuit the following weekend. It was held on 5 October 2014 at the Goldenport Park Circuit in Beijing, China.

Race one was won by Tom Chilton for ROAL Motorsport and race two was won by Robert Huff for Lada Sport, the manufacturer's first victory in the World Touring Car Championship.

Background

José María López led the drivers' championship coming into the round, sixty points ahead of teammate Yvan Muller. Franz Engstler held the lead of the Yokohama Trophy.

The event was a late replacement for the FIA WTCC Race of the United States which was cancelled in June 2014 due to logistical issues. ^[1] The Beijing race will form half of a Chinese double–header with the originally planned Shanghai race the following weekend.

Felipe De Souza joined Liqui Moly Team Engstler for the remained of the 2014 season, replacing Pasquale Di Sabatino. Michael Soong joined Campos Racing in a TC2T SEAT León and Ma Qing Hua returned to Citroën Total WTCC. ^[2]

When the compensation weights were revised after the previous round; the Citroën C-Elysée WTCC retained the maximum ballast to keep their weight at 1,160 kilograms (2,557 lb). The Honda Civic WTCCs gained 10 kilograms (22 lb) of ballast to weigh–in at 1,130 kilograms (2,491 lb) and the Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1s lost 20 kilograms (44 lb) to drop their weight to 1,120 kilograms (2,469 lb). The Lada Granta 1.6Ts remained at the base weight of 1,100 kilograms (2,425 lb). ^[3]

Report

Testing and free practice

The first test session took place in wet conditions and Tiago Monteiro set the fastest time ahead of López and Robert Huff. ^[4]

Monteiro was quickest again in the first free practice session with Citroën pair López and Ma Qing Hua second and third. The session ended 40 seconds early when López beached his car in the gravel at turn eight. ^[5]

Ma set the fastest time in the final free practice session ahead of Huff and Gianni Morbidelli as the sun set, the session was stopped two minutes early due to the deteriorating light conditions. ^[6]

Qualifying

Monteiro topped the first part of qualifying which was stopped twice; early on De Souza went off at the last corner and beached his Engstler BMW in the gravel trap. Later on Dušan Borković spun off and damaged his car which was then recovered by the marshals. Franz Engstler qualified 18th to take pole in the TC2T class.

López was fastest in the second part of qualifying while Monteiro finished 11th having led three out of the four sessions so far during the weekend. James Thompson was eighth and his Lada teammate Huff was tenth and therefore took pole for race two with Tom Coronel starting alongside him. López, Muller, Gabriele Tarquini, Morbidelli and Chilton made it through the Q3 shootout with Norbert Michelisz narrowly missing out.

Having been fifth in Q2, Chilton set his time first and it would go unbeaten for the rest of the session. Tarquini was second with the Citroëns of Muller and López ahead of Morbidelli. ^[7]

Race One

Chilton got away from pole while Muller jumped ahead of Tarquini to take second. After three laps the safety car came out following a collision between René Münnich and Borković. The race resumed on lap 11 with no immediate change in the order at the front although Tarquini was enduring pressure from López for third place. Michelisz moved up to fifth place at the expense of Sébastien Loeb who had also lost a place to Morbidelli. Monteiro went into the pits at half distance having struggled to get his car around the last lap. At the front Chilton was extending his lead while further back Ma took eighth off Thompson to put himself on the tail of teammate Loeb. On lap 23 Ma went off and dropped behind Thompson, Huff and Mehdi Bennani down to eleventh place. The following lap Tarquini returned to the pits for repairs, as did Coronel, Mikhail Kozlovskiy and Ma. Hugo Valente slowed with a puncture as Chilton claimed his first victory of the season ahead of Muller and López. Franz Engstler took victory in the TC2T class. ^[8]

Race Two

Prior to the race Honda had taken Monteiro's car out of parc fermé and he was dropped to the back of the grid for race two. Kozlovskiy was unable to start the race following on from technical issues in race one. Huff started on pole and narrowly beat Coronel into the first corner as Loeb jumped up to third ahead of Thompson who then lost another place to Michelisz. Bennani was given a drive–through penalty for a breach of the start procedure on the second lap. By the third lap Monteiro had moved up to 12th ahead of Ma as further back De Souza spun and recovered. Chilton had moved up to eighth since the start and had passed a struggling Muller, by half distance he was attacking Morbidelli for seventh although he would be unable to make further progress during the race. López had taken fourth place on lap 17 to increase his points haul over Muller, leaving him with ten laps to close the three second gap to Loeb who was still running third. In the final laps Coronel began closing in on race leader Huff while López had more than halved the gap to Loeb. Huff claimed the first WTCC victory for Lada, Coronel finished second while Loeb and Lopez were neck–and–neck to the line with Loeb claiming the final podium spot by three-hundredths of a second ahead. Franz Engstler claimed the TC2T class victory once again. ^[9]

Results

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Car	C	Q1	Q2	Q3	Points
1	3	Tom Chilton	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	1:04.887	1:04.524	1:04.321	5
2	2	Gabriele Tarquini	Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team	Honda Civic WTCC	TC1	1:05.177	1:04.373	1:04.353	4
3	1	Yvan Muller	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	TC1	1:04.953	1:04.356	1:04.411	3
4	37	José María López	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	TC1	1:05.166	1:04.081	1:04.776	2
5	10	Gianni Morbidelli	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	1:05.316	1:04.486	1:04.840	1
6	5	Norbert Michelisz	Zengő Motorsport	Honda Civic WTCC	TC1	1:05.017	1:04.788
7	9	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	TC1	1:04.972	1:04.872
8	11	James Thompson	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta 1.6T	TC1	1:05.553	1:04.937
9	4	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	1:05.574	1:04.937
10	12	Robert Huff	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta 1.6T	TC1	1:05.588	1:05.019
11	18	Tiago Monteiro	Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team	Honda Civic WTCC	TC1	1:04.884	1:05.152
12	7	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	1:05.440	1:05.428
13	25	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing	Honda Civic WTCC	TC1	1:05.663
14	33	Ma Qing Hua	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	TC1	1:05.874
15	14	Mikhail Kozlovskiy	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta 1.6T	TC1	1:06.069
16	98	Dušan Borković	Campos Racing	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	1:06.147
17	77	René Münnich	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	1:06.210
18	6	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	TC2T	1:08.028
19	27	John Filippi	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	TC2T	1:08.693
20	80	Michael Soong	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	TC2TA	1:11.443
107% time: 1:12.789 (TC2T)
–	26	Felipe De Souza	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	TC2TA	no time set

• Bold denotes Pole position for second race.

Race 1

Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Car	C	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	3	Tom Chilton	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	28	35:44.890	1	25
2	1	Yvan Muller	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	TC1	28	+2.493	3	18
3	37	José María López	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	TC1	28	+5.132	4	15
4	10	Gianni Morbidelli	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	28	+10.473	5	12
5	9	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	TC1	28	+14.455	7	10
6	5	Norbert Michelisz	Zengő Motorsport	Honda Civic WTCC	TC1	28	+17.238	6	8
7	11	James Thompson	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta 1.6T	TC1	28	+18.338	8	6
8	12	Robert Huff	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta 1.6T	TC1	28	+19.104	10	4
9	25	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing	Honda Civic WTCC	TC1	28	+37.966	13	2
10	6	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	TC2T	28	+54.871	18	1
11	14	Mikhail Kozlovskiy	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta 1.6T	TC1	27	+1 Lap	15
12	7	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	27	+1 Lap	12
13	27	John Filippi	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	TC2T	26	+2 Laps	19
14	26	Felipe De Souza	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	TC2TA	25	+3 Laps	20
15	33	Ma Qing Hua	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	TC1	24	+4 Laps	14
16	2	Gabriele Tarquini	Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team	Honda Civic WTCC	TC1	24	+4 Laps	2
17	4	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	22	+6 Laps	9
Ret	18	Tiago Monteiro	Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team	Honda Civic WTCC	TC1	13	Race incident	11
Ret	98	Dušan Borković	Campos Racing	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	1	Race incident	16
Ret	77	René Münnich	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	1	Race incident	17
DNS	80	Michael Soong	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	TC2TA	0	Did not start	–

Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Race 2

Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Car	C	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	12	Robert Huff	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta 1.6T	TC1	26	28:52.502	1	25
2	4	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	26	+0.766	2	18
3	9	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	TC1	26	+3.072	4	15
4	37	José María López	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	TC1	26	+3.102	7	12
5	5	Norbert Michelisz	Zengő Motorsport	Honda Civic WTCC	TC1	26	+8.673	5	10
6	11	James Thompson	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta 1.6T	TC1	26	+9.938	3	8
7	10	Gianni Morbidelli	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	26	+11.111	6	6
8	3	Tom Chilton	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	26	+11.553	10	4
9	1	Yvan Muller	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	TC1	26	+12.463	8	2
10	2	Gabriele Tarquini	Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team	Honda Civic WTCC	TC1	26	+12.805	9	1
11	7	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	26	+19.571	11
12	33	Ma Qing Hua	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	TC1	26	+21.714	13
13	18	Tiago Monteiro	Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team	Honda Civic WTCC	TC1	26	+24.261	18
14	6	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	TC2T	25	+1 Lap	15
15	27	John Filippi	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	TC2T	25	+1 Lap	16
Ret	25	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing	Honda Civic WTCC	TC1	6	Retired	12
Ret	26	Felipe De Souza	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	TC2TA	2	Retired	17
DNS	14	Mikhail Kozlovskiy	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta 1.6T	TC1	0	Did not start	14
DNS	98	Dušan Borković	Campos Racing	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	0	Did not start	19
DNS	77	René Münnich	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	0	Did not start	–
DNS	80	Michael Soong	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	TC2TA	0	Did not start	–

Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Standings after the event

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 José María López 339 2 Yvan Muller 273 3 Sébastien Loeb 238 4 Tiago Monteiro 146 5 Gabriele Tarquini 126

Yokohama Trophy standings Pos Driver Points 1 Franz Engstler 190 1 2 John Filippi 109 1 3 Pasquale Di Sabatino 98 4 Camilo Echevarría 12 4 Norbert Nagy 12

Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos Manufacturer Points 1 Citroën 769 2 Honda 499 3 Lada 305

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of drivers' standings.

References

1. Hudson, Neil (2 June 2014). "USA round of the WTCC cancelled due to logistics problem". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
2. "ENTRY LIST" (PDF). World Touring Car Championship . Kigema Sport Organisation. 29 September 2014. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
3. "Honda gain 10kg in compensation weight for China". TouringCarTimes. MediaEmpire Stockholm AB. 15 August 2014. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
4. "Monteiro fastest in wet test session". World Touring Car Championship . Kigema Sport Organisation. 4 October 2014. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
5. "Practice 1 – López ends up in the gravel trap". World Touring Car Championship . Kigema Sport Organisation. 4 October 2014. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
6. "Practice 2 – Ma Qing Hua beats Huff at nightfall". World Touring Car Championship . Kigema Sport Organisation. 4 October 2014. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
7. Abbott, Andrew (5 October 2014). "Tom Chilton takes surprise pole in Beijing". Touring-Cars.net. Andrew Abbott. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
8. Mills, Peter (5 October 2014). "Beijing Goldenport WTCC: Tom Chilton takes first victory of 2014". Autosport . Haymarket Publications . Retrieved 5 October 2014.
9. Mills, Peter (5 October 2014). "Beijing Goldenport WTCC: Rob Huff gives Lada maiden WTCC win". Autosport . Haymarket Publications . Retrieved 5 October 2014.

External links

• World Touring Car Championship official website

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