Teamwork Motorsport continued to notch up race wins in Round 7 of the 2015 SINOPEC LUBRICANTS China Touring Car Championship on the Yancheng Street Circuit (23-25 October), Alex Hui converting pole position into victory and Sunny Wong joining him on the podium in third position.
It was a perfect weekend for Hui, who placed at the top of the timesheets in free practice and continued setting the pace in qualifying to capture Teamwork Motorsport’s fifth pole position from the past seven rounds, although Wong’s preparations were mired by an electronics issue and he qualified on row two of the grid in P4.
The race began with Hui losing the initiative into Turn 1, but the Teamwork driver stayed in touch with his opponent.
Their dicing was intense and the lead constantly changed hands during the first three laps until, on the fourth circuit of the Yancheng street track, Hui pulled off a committed late-braking manoeuvre to retake the lead prior to a Safety Car intervention.
Wong had had a clean getaway but was faced with the task of working his way back into fourth position after overshooting Turn 1 and he made strides when racing resumed, while leader Hui put some distance between himself and the chasing pack.
Utilising his Citroen’s supreme braking performance, Wong picked off his rivals one at a time and shadowed teammate Hui in P2 at mid-distance, when electrical issues resulted in a sudden loss of power.
A full system reset cured the problems, but Wong had already lost track position, Hui taking a convincing race victory and Wong crossing the finish in third position.
“This weekend has been very smooth for me,” said Hui. “The Teamwork Motorsport Citroen C-Elysee was fast and I felt comfortable with it and with the Yancheng Street Circuit. It could have been more perfect if Sunny (Wong) hadn’t had that momentary electronics problem in the last two laps, as I really thought we could get another one-two finish. This is still an encouraging result for us, and also a reminder that we still have room to improve.”
The eighth and final round of the 2015 SINOPEC LUBRICANTS China Touring Car Championship is scheduled to take place in Beijing (5-8 November).
For more information on Teamwork Motorsport, please visit the www.teamworkms.com website, or ‘like’ the team’s Facebook page.