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.

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 lost of ballast to weigh–in at and the Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1s gained to drop their weight to . The Lada Granta 1.6Ts remained at the base weight of .

Report

Testing and free practice López and Muller were 1–2 in Fridays test session.

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.

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.

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.

Race One At the start Muller had to 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.

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.

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.

Results

Qualifying Name Team Car Q1 Q2 Q3 Points 1 37 José María López Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 1:49.546 1:49.418 1:48.782 5 2 33 Ma Qing Hua Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 1:49.313 1:49.436 1:48.898 4 3 1 Yvan Muller Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 1:49.514 1:49.299 1:49.424 3 4 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő Motorsport Honda Civic WTCCTC1 1:50.312 1:49.848 1:49.681 2 5 9 Sébastien Loeb Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 1:49.875 1:49.579 1:49.830 1 6 18 Tiago Monteiro Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team Honda Civic WTCCTC1 1:50.657 1:50.178 7 2 Gabriele Tarquini Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team Honda Civic WTCCTC1 1:50.266 1:50.229 8 3 Tom Chilton ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 1:50.229 1:50.351 9 7 Hugo Valente Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 1:51.300 1:50.406 10 25 Mehdi Bennani Proteam Racing Honda Civic WTCCTC1 1:50.782 1:50.528 11 4 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 1:50.694 1:50.548 12 98 Dušan Borković Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 1:50.867 1:51.665 13 10 Gianni Morbidelli ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 1:51.655 14 11 James Thompson Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 1:51.662 15 12 Robert Huff Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 1:51.781 16 14 Mikhail Kozlovskiy Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 1:51.953 17 77 René Münnich ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 1:52.393 18 6 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCTC2T 1:55.315 19 27 John Filippi Campos Racing SEAT León WTCCTC2T 1:56.753 20 38 William Lok Campos Racing SEAT León WTCCTC2T A 1:58.664 21 26 Felipe De Souza Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCTC2T A 1:58.719 Bold denotes Pole position for second race.

Race 1 Name Team Car Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 37 José María López Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 14 26:15.097 1 25 2 33 Ma Qing Hua Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 14 +2.089 2 18 3 1 Yvan Muller Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 14 +5.793 3 15 4 9 Sébastien Loeb Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 14 +6.175 5 12 5 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő Motorsport Honda Civic WTCCTC1 14 +16.050 4 10 6 2 Gabriele Tarquini Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team Honda Civic WTCCTC1 14 +16.483 7 8 7 18 Tiago Monteiro Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team Honda Civic WTCCTC1 14 +18.295 6 6 8 4 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 14 +22.058 11 4 9 7 Hugo Valente Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 14 +25.896 9 2 10 25 Mehdi Bennani Proteam Racing Honda Civic WTCCTC1 14 +26.278 10 1 11 10 Gianni Morbidelli ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 14 +47.194 13 12 98 Dušan Borković Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 14 +53.710 12 13 6 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCTC2T 14 +1:29.282 18 14 27 John Filippi Campos Racing SEAT León WTCCTC2T 14 +1:43.122 19 15 12 Robert Huff Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 13 +1 Lap 15 16 26 Felipe De Souza Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCTC2T A 13 +1 Lap 21 17 77 René Münnich ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 10 +4 Laps 17 Ret 14 Mikhail Kozlovskiy Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 6 Retired 16 Ret 38 William Lok Campos Racing SEAT León WTCCTC2T A 5 Suspension 20 Ret 3 Tom Chilton ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 2 Wheel 8 Ret 11 James Thompson Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 0 Wheel 14 Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Race 2 Name Team Car Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 25 Mehdi Bennani Proteam Racing Honda Civic WTCCTC1 14 26:21.882 1 25 2 18 Tiago Monteiro Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team Honda Civic WTCCTC1 14 +2.590 5 18 3 37 José María López Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 14 +4.041 10 15 4 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő Motorsport Honda Civic WTCCTC1 14 +13.976 7 12 5 33 Ma Qing Hua Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 14 +14.416 9 10 6 4 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 14 +21.725 11 8 7 3 Tom Chilton ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 14 +22.933 3 6 8 7 Hugo Valente Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 14 +27.276 2 4 9 98 Dušan Borković Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 14 +27.855 12 2 10 11 James Thompson Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 14 +28.028 20 1 11 14 Mikhail Kozlovskiy Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 14 +39.940 15 12 9 Sébastien Loeb Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 14 +41.238 6 13 10 Gianni Morbidelli ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 14 +1:06.588 13 14 6 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCTC2T 14 +1:11.237 17 15 27 John Filippi Campos Racing SEAT León WTCCTC2T 14 +1:35.752 18 16 26 Felipe De Souza Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCTC2T A 13 +1 Lap 19 Ret 77 René Münnich ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1TC1 6 Brakes 16 Ret 2 Gabriele Tarquini Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team Honda Civic WTCCTC1 5 Technical 4 Ret 12 Robert Huff Lukoil Lada Sport Lada Granta 1.6TTC1 4 Race incident 14 Ret 1 Yvan Muller Citroën Total WTCC Citroën C-Elysée WTCCTC1 2 Race incident 8 DNS 38 William Lok Campos Racing SEAT León WTCCTC2T A 0 Did not start 21 Bold denotes Fastest lap.

 — Chilton started from the pit lane.  — 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