Audi Sport enjoyed another glorious weekend of racing as its Asian customer teams grabbed a double podium in the Macau GT Cup and a fourth place in the Macau Guia Race.
In the Macau GT Cup, Marchy Lee of Audi Sport Asia Team X Works, who started the race from the third position managed to equal his highest-ever GT Cup finish at Macau after moving up to second before crossing the finish line. Third place went to fellow Audi R8 LMS driver Chen Weian of Audi Sport Asia Team TSRT. Chen, whose car suffered from a slow puncture earlier in the race benefitted from a red flag that halted the race on lap 10.
Meanwhile, in the Macau Guia Race, Filipe Souza of T.A. Motorsport clinched the number four spot following an impressive comeback in his Audi RS 3 LMS.
RACE REPORT
Audi Sport customer racing Asia celebrated a double podium in the Macau GT Cup at the 67th Macau Grand Prix. Former Audi Sport R8 LMS Cup champion Marchy Lee of Audi Sport Asia Team X Works battled to second ahead of fellow Audi R8 LMS driver Chen Weian of Audi Sport Asia Team TSRT. Privateer Billy Lo of Tianshi ZUVER Team crossed the line eighth overall in the third of the Audi R8 LMS GT3 entries in the Macau GT Cup.
“The Audi drivers and teams can be proud of their performances today. They fought for every inch of track on one of the most unforgiving circuit in the world. We came here aiming for victory but, all in all, two podiums at the Macau GT Cup is a very strong performance. Congratulations go to AMG and Ye Hongli for the GT Cup win,” said Alexander Blackie, Manager of Audi Sport customer racing Asia. “15 Audi race cars on the Guia Street Circuit was really something to behold, our thanks go to all of our customers and teams for making it such a spectacle.”
Twelve Audi RS 3 LMS cars contested the Macau Guia Race touring car classic, with Macau driver Filipe Souza of T.A. Motorsport finishing fourth – just outside of the podium positions – in Sunday’s main event, after claiming a hard-fought podium finish with the Audi RS 3 LMS in Saturday’s Qualification Race.
Macau GT Cup
Chen and Lee qualified third and fourth respectively in Saturday morning’s qualifying session before crossing the line in the same order in the Qualification Race. However, a penalty to the Qualification Race winner promoted Chen to the front row for Sunday’s race, with Lee starting from third and Billy Lo from sixth.
In Sunday’s Macau GT Cup final Chen had a challenging opening lap and dropped down to fourth, with Lee getting by and moving up to second. Lee remained untroubled for the rest of the race to equal his highest-ever GT Cup finish at Macau.
Behind, a determined Chen moved up into third two laps later with an audacious move at the infamous Lisboa Bend to move into podium contention.
All eyes were on Chen as he next had to withstand intense pressure from a rival behind, holding his line with aplomb. As the pressure intensified, Chen’s R8 LMS GT3 started to feel the effects of a slow puncture sustained earlier in the race. With his pace compromised, his rival managed to squeeze past, however, Chen was handed a lifeline when the red flag came out and halted the race on lap 10. With the results called from the end of the previous lap, Chen had claimed a well-deserved podium finish.
Billy Lo dropped back two places on the opening lap, the Macau driver finishing eighth in the race.
Macau Guia Race
In Saturday’s eight-lap Qualification Race, Souza resisted pressure from a rival in a twice-interrupted race to take the final podium position and earn himself a second-row grid position for Sunday’s main race.
At the start of the main race, Souza’s Audi RS 3 LMS dropped down the order, but he immediately mounted a comeback, finding his way past a rival after a brief safety car period.
A lap later, the race was halted for a second time after an incident, which involved Wu Yifan of 326 Racing Team, and the race was not resumed.
Souza was ultimately classified fourth, just off the podium, while fellow Audi RS 3 LMS driver Huang Chuhan of NewFaster was eighth.
