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2014 FIA WTCC Race of China, Shanghai

Race details
Round 10 of 12 in the 2014 World Touring Car Championship at Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, China.
Date	12 October, 2014
Location	Shanghai, China
Course	Shanghai International Circuit 4.603 kilometres (2.860 mi)
Race One
Laps 14 Pole position Driver José María López Citroën Total WTCC Time 1:48.782 Podium First José María López Citroën Total WTCC Second Ma Qing Hua Citroën Total WTCC Third Yvan Muller Citroën Total WTCC Fastest Lap Driver Ma Qing Hua Citroën Total WTCC Time 1:50.833
Race Two
Laps 14 Podium First Mehdi Bennani Proteam Racing Second Tiago Monteiro Castrol Honda WTCT Third José María López Citroën Total WTCC Fastest Lap Driver Gabriele Tarquini Castrol Honda WTCT Time 1:51.316

The 2014 FIA WTCC Race of China, Shanghai was the tenth round of the 2014 World Touring Car Championship season and the fifth running of the FIA WTCC Race of China. It was the second of two rounds held in China in 2014, the first having taken place at the Goldenport Park Circuit in Beijing the previous weekend. It was held on 12 October 2014 at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, China.

Race one was won by José María López for Citroën Total WTCC and race two was won by Mehdi Bennani for Proteam Racing. Victory for Bennani in race two was the first for a Moroccan driver in an FIA–sanctioned race. Citroën secured the manufacturers' title for first time while Franz Engstler wrapped–up the Yokohama Trophy.

Background

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

William Lok replaced Michael Soong at Campos Racing as planned, joining regular driver John Filippi.^[1]

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 lost 10 kilograms (22 lb) of ballast to weigh–in at 1,120 kilograms (2,469 lb) and the Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1s gained 20 kilograms (44 lb) to drop their weight to 1,140 kilograms (2,513 lb). The Lada Granta 1.6Ts remained at the base weight of 1,100 kilograms (2,425 lb).^[2]

Report

Testing and free practice

López and Muller were 1–2 in Fridays test session.^[3]

Muller was quickest in the foggy conditions of free practice one on Saturday morning, the Hondas of Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro separated the four Citroëns in the top–six.^[4]

Ma Qing Hua led a Citroën 1–2–3 in free practice two. The session had been briefly interrupted by yellow flags for Lok's Campos SEAT which had gone off at the first corner.^[5]

Qualifying

Ma was quickest in the first part of qualifying with him and his Citroën teammates filling the first four positions. Gianni Morbidelli was the first driver to miss out on a place in Q2 while all three Lada Sport cars missed out on Q2 with James Thompson the quickest of them in 14th.

Citroën was 1–2–3–4 once again in Q2 with Muller the quickest ahead of López, Ma and Sébastien Loeb. Zengő Motorsport's Norbert Michelisz was the fifth driver to through to the Q3 superpole session. Mehdi Bennani finished tenth to take pole position on the reversed race two grid, taking the place in the final moments of qualifying from Tom Coronel who had returned to the pit lane early.

López took pole with his Q3 lap one–tenth better than that of Ma's. Muller was third with Michelisz spoiling a perfect result for Citroën ahead of fifth placed Loeb.^[6]

Race One

At the start Muller had defend his third place from Michelisz, behind them the two factory Hondas of Monteiro and Tarquini were fighting over fifth place with Tarquini edging ahead. On the back straight Monteiro was under attack from Loeb although it would be on the following lap where Loeb would move ahead of Monteiro. On lap three the right rear wheel of eighth placed Tom Chilton's car came off and he was out of the race. On lap four Loeb was chasing Michelisz for fourth place, benefiting from the extra straight line speed of the Citroën on the back straight. Loeb passed Michelisz at the end of lap six to make it four Citroëns in the first four places. Double waved yellow flags were shown at the final corner near the end of the race when Lok went off at the final corner with broken suspension which left his SEAT in the gravel on the outside of the pit straight. Robert Huff slowed with a puncture on the last lap as López led a Citroën 1–2–3–4 to secure the first World Touring Car Championship manufacturers' title for the French team. Franz Engstler finished first in the TC2 class to secure the Yokohama Trophy title.^[7]

Race Two

Bennani started on pole position and retained the lead at the start while fellow front row starter Hugo Valente dropped back behind Tarquini and Monteiro. After the first few corners Bennani was starting to break away from the rest of the field who were bunched up behind Valente. On lap two Loeb made contact with Muller at the final hairpin while attempting a pass, breaking Muller's right–rear suspension in the process and the reigning champion peeled off into the pits to retire his car. On lap five Huff stopped at the side of the circuit after turn two following contact with Gianni Morbidelli who was later given a drive–through penalty for causing the collision. On the same lap Tarquini started to slow with technical problems promoting Monteiro to second as López moved into third at the expense of Valente. On lap six Loeb went up the inside of Valente at the final hairpin but it was on the following lap that he could make that move stick. Bennani held on to claim his first outright win in the WTCC with Monteiro second and López third.^[8]

After the race Loeb was given a 30–second time penalty for the incident with Muller, dropping him from fourth to twelfth in the final classification.^[9]

Results

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Car	C	Q1	Q2	Q3	Points
1	37	José María López	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	TC1	1:49.546	1:49.418	1:48.782	5
2	33	Ma Qing Hua	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	TC1	1:49.313	1:49.436	1:48.898	4
3	1	Yvan Muller	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	TC1	1:49.514	1:49.299	1:49.424	3
4	5	Norbert Michelisz	Zengő Motorsport	Honda Civic WTCC	TC1	1:50.312	1:49.848	1:49.681	2
5	9	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	TC1	1:49.875	1:49.579	1:49.830	1
6	18	Tiago Monteiro	Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team	Honda Civic WTCC	TC1	1:50.657	1:50.178
7	2	Gabriele Tarquini	Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team	Honda Civic WTCC	TC1	1:50.266	1:50.229
8	3	Tom Chilton	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	1:50.229	1:50.351
9	7	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	1:51.300	1:50.406
10	25	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing	Honda Civic WTCC	TC1	1:50.782	1:50.528
11	4	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	1:50.694	1:50.548
12	98	Dušan Borković	Campos Racing	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	1:50.867	1:51.665
13	10	Gianni Morbidelli	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	1:51.655
14	11	James Thompson	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta 1.6T	TC1	1:51.662
15	12	Robert Huff	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta 1.6T	TC1	1:51.781
16	14	Mikhail Kozlovskiy	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta 1.6T	TC1	1:51.953
17	77	René Münnich	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	1:52.393
18	6	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	TC2T	1:55.315
19	27	John Filippi	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	TC2T	1:56.753
20	38	William Lok	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	TC2T A	1:58.664
21	26	Felipe De Souza	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	TC2T A	1:58.719

• 
  Bold denotes Pole position for second race.

Race 1

Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Car	C	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	37	José María López	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	TC1	14	26:15.097	1	25
2	33	Ma Qing Hua	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	TC1	14	+2.089	2	18
3	1	Yvan Muller	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	TC1	14	+5.793	3	15
4	9	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	TC1	14	+6.175	5	12
5	5	Norbert Michelisz	Zengő Motorsport	Honda Civic WTCC	TC1	14	+16.050	4	10
6	2	Gabriele Tarquini	Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team	Honda Civic WTCC	TC1	14	+16.483	7	8
7	18	Tiago Monteiro	Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team	Honda Civic WTCC	TC1	14	+18.295	6	6
8	4	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	14	+22.058	11	4
9	7	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	14	+25.896	9	2
10	25	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing	Honda Civic WTCC	TC1	14	+26.278	10	1
11	10	Gianni Morbidelli	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	14	+47.194	13
12	98	Dušan Borković	Campos Racing	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	14	+53.710	12
13	6	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	TC2T	14	+1:29.282	18
14	27	John Filippi	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	TC2T	14	+1:43.122	19
15	12	Robert Huff	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta 1.6T	TC1	13	+1 Lap	15
16	26	Felipe De Souza	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	TC2T A	13	+1 Lap	21
17	77	René Münnich	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	10	+4 Laps	17
Ret	14	Mikhail Kozlovskiy	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta 1.6T	TC1	6	Retired	16
Ret	38	William Lok	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	TC2T A	5	Suspension	20
Ret	3	Tom Chilton	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	2	Wheel	8
Ret	11	James Thompson	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta 1.6T	TC1	0	Wheel	14

Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Race 2

Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Car	C	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	25	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing	Honda Civic WTCC	TC1	14	26:21.882	1	25
2	18	Tiago Monteiro	Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team	Honda Civic WTCC	TC1	14	+2.590	5	18
3	37	José María López	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	TC1	14	+4.041	10	15
4	5	Norbert Michelisz	Zengő Motorsport	Honda Civic WTCC	TC1	14	+13.976	7	12
5	33	Ma Qing Hua	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	TC1	14	+14.416	9	10
6	4	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	14	+21.725	11	8
7	3	Tom Chilton	ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	14	+22.933	31	6
8	7	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	14	+27.276	2	4
9	98	Dušan Borković	Campos Racing	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	14	+27.855	12	2
10	11	James Thompson	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta 1.6T	TC1	14	+28.028	20	1
11	14	Mikhail Kozlovskiy	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta 1.6T	TC1	14	+39.940	15
12	9	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	TC1	14	+41.2382	6
13	10	Gianni Morbidelli	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	14	+1:06.588	13
14	6	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	TC2T	14	+1:11.237	17
15	27	John Filippi	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	TC2T	14	+1:35.752	18
16	26	Felipe De Souza	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	TC2T A	13	+1 Lap	19
Ret	77	René Münnich	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	TC1	6	Brakes	16
Ret	2	Gabriele Tarquini	Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team	Honda Civic WTCC	TC1	5	Technical	4
Ret	12	Robert Huff	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta 1.6T	TC1	4	Race incident	14
Ret	1	Yvan Muller	Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	TC1	2	Race incident	8
DNS	38	William Lok	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	TC2T A	0	Did not start	21

Bold denotes Fastest lap.

^1  — Chilton started from the pit lane.

^2  — Loeb received a 30–second penalty after the race for his collision with Muller.

Standings after the event

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 José María López 384 2 Yvan Muller 291 3 Sébastien Loeb 251 4 Tiago Monteiro 170 2 5 Norbert Michelisz 142

Yokohama Trophy standings Pos Driver Points 1 Franz Engstler 213 2 John Filippi 125 3 Pasquale Di Sabatino 98 4 4 Felipe De Souza 18 1 5 Camilo Echevarría 12

Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos Manufacturer Points 1 Citroën 848 2 Honda 574 3 Lada 334

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

References

External links

• World Touring Car Championship official website