Sensor issues brought the curtain down early on Teamwork Motorsport’s 2015 SINOPEC Lubricants China Touring Car Championship (CTCC) opener at the Guangdong International Circuit (GIC), despite showing the pace required to challenge the manufacturer teams (16-17 May).
Teamwork Motorsport’s two experienced drivers, Sunny Wong and Samuel Hsieh, opened the 2015 season by taking to the 1.75mile Guangdong International Circuit in their Citroën Elysées for Saturday’s (16 May) qualifying session.
Braking issues hampered any meaningful running for Hsieh and was he unable to set a respective time, while Wong, who showed a great turn of speed during free practice to position himself securely inside the top six, made a mistake on his quickest flying lap, beaching his Citroën in the gravel.
Hsieh and Wong started Sunday’s (17 May) headlining race in ninth and 12th places respectively due to the addition of several 2.0T drivers, who had to start behind all 1.6T competitors.
The rain that had persisted for the duration of Saturday had yet to ease and the treacherous conditions forced officials to commence the race and run two laps behind the Safety Car, but Hsieh and Wong made the most of the rolling start, each disposing of their rivals to climb the leaderboard.
Wong continued to scythe his way through the field, overtaking several of his competitors with each passing lap and was quick to catch the sister Citroen of Hsieh, who showed great respect for his quicker teammate by opening the door and allowing him to pass and continue pursuing the frontrunners, before a high temperature problem, which was eventually diagnosed to be sensor issues, would bring his race to a premature end on lap nine.
Debutant Hsieh took over the reins and continued the chase, showing his years’ of experience in the Hong Kong Touring Car Championship (HTCC) to move up to seventh position and enter into an enthralling battle for sixth with a works KIA on lap 17.
The duo continued to dice for position throughout the circuit’s 13 turns, before Hsieh suffered the same fate as teammate Wong, with sensor issues bringing to an end to his CTCC debut.
While Teamwork Motorsport recorded two DNFs, both drivers showed strong pace throughout the weekend, with Wong and Hsieh setting the third and fifth fastest laps respectively in a field of 15 competitors.
“It’s disappointing to have a DNF in the opening round, but we did improve in terms of pace and proved we can compete with the manufacturer teams,” said Wong. “Now we have the major reliability issues to solve. We will work together as a team and try to rectify this before the next round at the Shanghai Formula 1 circuit in three weeks.”
Teammate Hsieh added: “I was struggling with a braking imbalance in practice and qualifying, but the team did a great job to solve the problem just in time for the race, before another issue emerged. A temperature (sensor) issue forced me to retire just a few laps from the chequered flag. The team is now working at full speed to right the problem and I have full confidence that the car will be ready for Shanghai.”
In less than three weeks (6-7 June), the SINPOEC LUBRICANTS Chinese Touring Car Championship (CTCC) and Hong Kong Touring Car Championship (HTCC) will share the same grid at the Shanghai International Circuit, where Teamwork Motorsport will be fielding three Peugeot RCZs and two Citroën Elsyées for its five drivers, Paul Poon, Samson Fung, Andrew Lo, Samuel Hsieh and Sunny Wong.
For more information on Teamwork Motorsport, please visit the www.teamworkms.com website, or ‘like’ the team’s Facebook page.