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. 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.

When the compensation weights were revised after the previous round; the Citroën C-Elysée WTCC retained the maximum ballast to keep their weight at . The Honda Civic WTCCs gained of ballast to weigh–in at and the Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1s lost to drop their weight to . The Lada Granta 1.6Ts remained at the base weight of .

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Results

Qualifying Name Team Car Q1 Q2 Q3 Points 1 3 Tom Chilton ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 1:04.887 1:04.524 1:04.321 5 2 2 Gabriele Tarquini Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team Honda Civic WTCCTC1 1:05.177 1:04.373 1:04.353 4 3 1 Yvan Muller Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 1:04.953 1:04.356 1:04.411 3 4 37 José María López Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 1:05.166 1:04.081 1:04.776 2 5 10 Gianni Morbidelli ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 1:05.316 1:04.486 1:04.840 1 6 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő Motorsport Honda Civic WTCCTC1 1:05.017 1:04.788 7 9 Sébastien Loeb Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 1:04.972 1:04.872 8 11 James Thompson Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 1:05.553 1:04.937 9 4 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 1:05.574 1:04.937 10 12 Robert Huff Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 1:05.588 1:05.019 11 18 Tiago Monteiro Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team Honda Civic WTCCTC1 1:04.884 1:05.152 12 7 Hugo Valente Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 1:05.440 1:05.428 13 25 Mehdi Bennani Proteam Racing Honda Civic WTCCTC1 1:05.663 14 33 Ma Qing Hua Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 1:05.874 15 14 Mikhail Kozlovskiy Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 1:06.069 16 98 Dušan Borković Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 1:06.147 17 77 René Münnich ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 1:06.210 18 6 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCTC2T 1:08.028 19 27 John Filippi Campos Racing SEAT León WTCCTC2T 1:08.693 20 80 Michael Soong Campos Racing SEAT León WTCCTC2T A 1:11.443 107% time: 1:12.789 (TC2T) – 26 Felipe De Souza Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCTC2T A no time set Bold denotes Pole position for second race.

Race 1 Name Team Car Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 3 Tom Chilton ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 28 35:44.890 1 25 2 1 Yvan Muller Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 28 +2.493 3 18 3 37 José María López Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 28 +5.132 4 15 4 10 Gianni Morbidelli ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 28 +10.473 5 12 5 9 Sébastien Loeb Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 28 +14.455 7 10 6 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő Motorsport Honda Civic WTCCTC1 28 +17.238 6 8 7 11 James Thompson Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 28 +18.338 8 6 8 12 Robert Huff Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 28 +19.104 10 4 9 25 Mehdi Bennani Proteam Racing Honda Civic WTCCTC1 28 +37.966 13 2 10 6 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCTC2T 28 +54.871 18 1 11 14 Mikhail Kozlovskiy Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 27 +1 Lap 15 12 7 Hugo Valente Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 27 +1 Lap 12 13 27 John Filippi Campos Racing SEAT León WTCCTC2T 26 +2 Laps 19 14 26 Felipe De Souza Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCTC2T A 25 +3 Laps 20 15 33 Ma Qing Hua Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 24 +4 Laps 14 16 2 Gabriele Tarquini Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team Honda Civic WTCCTC1 24 +4 Laps 2 17 4 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 22 +6 Laps 9 Ret 18 Tiago Monteiro Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team Honda Civic WTCCTC1 13 Race incident 11 Ret 98 Dušan Borković Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 1 Race incident 16 Ret 77 René Münnich ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 1 Race incident 17 DNS 80 Michael Soong Campos Racing SEAT León WTCCTC2T A 0 Did not start – Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Race 2 Name Team Car Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 12 Robert Huff Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 26 28:52.502 1 25 2 4 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 26 +0.766 2 18 3 9 Sébastien Loeb Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 26 +3.072 4 15 4 37 José María López Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 26 +3.102 7 12 5 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő Motorsport Honda Civic WTCCTC1 26 +8.673 5 10 6 11 James Thompson Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 26 +9.938 3 8 7 10 Gianni Morbidelli ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 26 +11.111 6 6 8 3 Tom Chilton ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 26 +11.553 10 4 9 1 Yvan Muller Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 26 +12.463 8 2 10 2 Gabriele Tarquini Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team Honda Civic WTCCTC1 26 +12.805 9 1 11 7 Hugo Valente Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 26 +19.571 11 12 33 Ma Qing Hua Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 26 +21.714 13 13 18 Tiago Monteiro Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team Honda Civic WTCCTC1 26 +24.261 18 14 6 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCTC2T 25 +1 Lap 15 15 27 John Filippi Campos Racing SEAT León WTCCTC2T 25 +1 Lap 16 Ret 25 Mehdi Bennani Proteam Racing Honda Civic WTCCTC1 6 Retired 12 Ret 26 Felipe De Souza Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCTC2T A 2 Retired 17 DNS 14 Mikhail Kozlovskiy Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 0 Did not start 14 DNS 98 Dušan Borković Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 0 Did not start 19 DNS 77 René Münnich ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 0 Did not start – DNS 80 Michael Soong Campos Racing SEAT León WTCCTC2T A 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

External links World Touring Car Championship official website