Esteban Guerrieri remains in the thick of the hunt for the WTCR – FIA World Touring Car Cup following a hard-fought double-points finish on the streets of Macau on Sunday.
Heading to the season finale at Sepang, Malaysia, in just under a month, the Argentinian ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport driver finished fourth and 10th to hold on to second place in the standings.
A firm passing move at the tight Lisboa right-hander on the third lap moved him up from his fourth-place starting spot into a podium position.
But with the championship’s Balance of Performance (BoP) rendering his Honda Civic Type R far slower in a straight line than most of the other cars, he was unable to fend off the attack of his driver behind him and had to defend strongly to hold on to fourth.
His results reduced his gap to the series leader from 18 points to nine with 85 still available and four drivers in title contention.
Team-mate Nestor Girolami finished 19th and 17th; the Argentinian compromising his start procedure because he could not see the start/finish lights from his grid position, and later having to drive within himself after noticing rising fluid temperatures.
Taking part in their local race, Hong Kong’s KCMG team came close to adding to the point scored by Tiago Monteiro on Saturday.
From the back row after red flags and slow backmarkers left him unable to set a representative time in second qualifying, Tiago surged forwards on the opening lap of Race Two to finish 18th.
He kept his nose clean in the finale to add 19th with faster pace than he was able to use.
Hungarian team-mate Attila Tassi, who twice started 17th, sustained damage to the front of his Civic Type R TCR at Lisboa on the opening lap of Race Two as he attempted to avoid a two-car collision ahead of him.
He ran solidly in 16th until being punted down the escape road with two laps left. He finished 16th in Race Three, despite still carrying damage from the earlier incident.