Norbert Michelisz has won the 2024 Kumho FIA TCR World Tour title in a delayed final race at Macau, after finishing fifth on the road with his rival Thed Björk three places behind him in eighth.
In the final standings, Michelisz won by 11 points over Björk, with Azcona securing the third place.
It was wet-to-dry race in which a strategy call from GOAT Racing to run on all slick tyres resulted in a 1-2-3 finish with Dušan Borković scoring his maiden World Tour win ahead of teammates Esteban Guerrieri and Marco Butti.
With the rain falling heavily all morning, the race was postponed with the conditions deemed too dangerous and eventually it was moved back two hours starting behind the safety car. At that point conditions were improving and a number of drivers went for slick tyres, while the conservative call from the title contenders was to start on wets.
The safety car pulled in on lap 3, with Andy Yan Cheuk Wai leading the way from the reversed grid pole position ahead of his teammate Martin Cao Hong Wei.
Before the Lisboa bend, Néstor Girolami, on full slicks, dropped straight behind his teammate Michelisz in order to defend his back, while up front, Cao who was chasing the TCR China title, overtook his own teammate Yan for the overall lead. Further down the top ten, Azcona passed Yann Ehrlacher at Lisboa on lap 4, with Ehrlacher immediately dropping behind Björk, while the two slick-shod cars of Rob Huff and Zhang Zhen Dong retired with damage after a collision. On lap 5, Yan got out of the way of Ma Qing Hua and Borković who passed Ma for second and then overtook Cao for the lead. Then Ma overtook Cao who began to slip down the order. On lap 7, Guerrieri went from seventh to second in just one lap, with Butti in tow as they demoted Ma to fourth. On the next lap, Ehrlacher dropped out of tenth after touching the tyre wall, while Max Hart, who had just passed Cao and was leading TCR Asia, hit the barrier and stopped on the track causing a safety car period at the end of lap nine.
The race was restarted for the last lap, but there were no critical changes, with Borković leading the way ahead of Guerrieri and Butti, while Michelisz’s fifth place was enough to seal the title.
In TCR China the winner was Martin Xie Xin Zhe who finished ninth overall, also on slicks fitted to his MacPro Racing Honda, while 11th for Cao was enough to secure him the title, as his contender Jason Zhang Zhi Qiang stopping on the final lap. In TCR Asia, the race was won by Dypo Fitramadhan, who finished 25th overall ahead of Benny Santoso.
Macau – Race 2
- Dušan Borković (GOAT Racing, Honda Civic Type R FL5), 12 laps
- Esteban Guerrieri (GOAT Racing, Honda Civic Type R FL5), 3.568
- Marco Butti (GOAT Racing, Honda Civic Type R FL5), 4.108
Championship points – TCR World Tour
- N. Michelisz, 323 pts; 2. T. Björk, 312; 3. M. Azcona, 295
Championship points – TCR China
- M. Cao H.W., 430 pts; 2. J. Zhang Z.Q., 388; 3. M. Xie X.Z., 318
Championship points – TCR Asia
- Zhang Z.D., 376 pts; 2. Hwang D., 330: 3. M. Hart, 317
Further information and images @ www.fiatcrworldtour.com
Picture: WSC/Jun Qian Motorsport
