López had secured the drivers' championship at the previous race. His teammates Yvan Muller and Sébastien Loeb were both in contention to finish second in the standings. Franz Engstler had secured the Yokohama Trophy title two rounds previously.
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 only change was to the Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1s which gained 10 kilograms (22 lb) to weigh 1,140 kilograms (2,513 lb).[2]
Report
Testing and free practice
Norbert Michelisz led the test session on Thursday morning ahead of Muller and López.[3]
Gabriele Tarquini led a Castrol Honda 1–2 in first free practice later on Thursday, teammate Tiago Monteiro was second ahead of López, Muller and Michelisz. Series returnee Pepe Oriola was the fastest Chevrolet in fifth. The session was red–flagged seven minutes in when Hugo Valente crashed his Campos Racing Chevrolet into the barriers.[4]
López led free practice two on Friday ahead of teammate Ma Qing Hua. The session was first interrupted when Henry Kwong crashed into the barrier at Lisboa, the session was then red–flagged when Oriola clipped the barriers at the Esses.[5]
Qualifying
Michelisz was quickest in the first part of qualifying which was extended due to the length of the Guia Circuit. Five minutes into the session Oriola was involved in an accident which would see the Spaniard ruled out of the rest of the weekend.[6]Mehdi Bennani was the first of the drivers who failed to get through to Q2 along with James Thompson and Mikhail Kozlovskiy. René Münnich failed to qualify within the 107% rule despite setting a time quicker than TC2 driver Felipe De Souza who qualified in 18th.
López topped the times in Q2, Valente was tenth to secure pole race two where he would share the front row with ROAL Motorsport's Tom Chilton. Ma finished eleventh and missed out on the reversed grid opportunity while his three teammates made it through to Q3 along with Tom Coronel and Michelisz.
López recorded his seventh pole of the season on his maiden appearance at the Macau circuit. Citroën filled the first three places, Sébastien Loeb out–qualified Muller who had been suffering with understeer while Michelisz took fourth ahead of Coronel.[7]
Race One
Michelisz got around Muller and Loeb to move into second as Chilton stalled on the grid. Muller dropped to sixth position behind the two factory Hondas of Tarquini and Monteiro. On lap three Loeb tried a pass around the outside of Michelisz at Lisboa, losing him places to Tarquini, Monteiro and Muller. On lap five Kwong collided with the barriers, teammate Lok then went off at Melco a few seconds later. On lap nine Bennani went off at the start line after a collision with Kwong who was a lap down and trying to get out of the way; Kwong swerved across and tagged Bennani which caused Bennani to lose control and tag the barriers. The race finished with yellow flags in sector one for the stricken Proteam Racing Honda, López claimed a dominant victory with Michelisz and Tarquini completing the podium. Franz Engstler was the Yokohama Trophy winner.[8]
Race Two
Bennani was unable to start race two due to damage sustained to his car in race one while Tarquini pulled out due to illness. At the start Monteiro got through between front row starters Valente and Chilton, Valente tried to retake the lead at Lisboa but outbraked himself and dropped back. Monteiro now led from Huff and Muller, Michelisz was fourth with Valente and Chilton leading the rest of the pack which was dropping back from the lead battle. Gianni Morbidelli went off at Fishermen's Bend on lap four having lost the rear of his Chevrolet on the exit, the car was quickly lifted away. Lap five saw Loeb pass Coronel at Lisboa to take eighth place, he pulled off a similar move on Chilton on the following lap to take seventh place as Ma unsuccessfully tried to pass Coronel just behind. On lap seven Ma went into the barriers at R bend with the safety car coming out at the end of the following lap while the car was removed. The safety car came in at the end of the lap nine and race distance was extended to eleven laps. Valente pass Michelisz for fourth on the approach to Lisboa, later on in the lap Huff and Muller both leapt ahead of Monteiro who dropping back down the field quickly with steering problems. Huff won the race with Muller and Valente completing the podium, Franz Engstler finished tenth to take the final point and victory in the Yokohama Trophy.[9]
