# 2012 Guia Race of Macau

The 2012 Guia Race of Macau was the twelfth and final round of the 2012 World Touring Car Championship season and the eighth running of the Guia Race of Macau. It was held on 18 November 2012 at the Guia Circuit in the Chinese special administrative region of Macau. The race was part of the Macau Grand Prix weekend, headlined by the Formula Three event. Both races were won by Chevrolet in their final event as a works team; Yvan Muller won the first race and Alain Menu won the second race, while the team's third driver Robert Huff became series champion with second to Menu in the second race.

## Background

At the previous round in the Race of China, Robert Huff had established himself as the solo championship leader. Norbert Michelisz was leading the Yokohama Independents' Trophy.
A number of local drivers joined the field for the race, Jo Merszei joined Liqui Moly Team Engstler in a naturally aspirated BMW 320si previously run in 2012 by Masaki Kano and Alex Liu. Andre Couto joined Tuenti Racing Team for his annual appearance at Macau. China Dragon Racing added a second Chevrolet Lacetti for Celio Alves Dias. RPM Racing Team ran a BMW 320si for Mak Ka Lok while Five Auto Racing Team ran a BMW 320si for Henry Ho and a Honda Accord Euro R for Eurico de Jesus. Italian former All-Japan Formula Three driver Kei Cozzolino made his maiden touring car appearance, replacing Alberto Cerqui at ROAL Motorsport.
This was to be the last race for Chevrolet as a works team in the WTCC having announced their departure from the series in July.

## Report
### Free Practice

Tiago Monteiro set the pace in the shortened Thursday test session, with Mehdi Bennani and Stefano D'Aste have initially set the pace. Cozzolino, Mak Ka Lok and Franz Engstler recovered from spins with relatively little damage, the session was however red flagged three minutes from the end when bamboo-engineering driver Darryl O'Young crashed head on into the barrier at the Mandarin Oriental corner.
Huff went quickest in Free Practice 1 on Friday, having spent much of the session trading times with teammates Muller and Menu and Honda Racing Team JAS driver Monteiro. O'Young was able to participate after his car was repaired overnight, Cozzolino damaged his car colliding with a barrier and Henry Ho was once again unable to run, this time due to a gearbox failure.
Huff led the Chevrolet trio in the second free practice session which distanced itself from the next nearest challenger, the Lukoil Racing SEAT León of Gabriele Tarquini, by 1.3 seconds. Damage sustained in the first free practice session meant Cozzolino did not get any running in for ROAL Motorsport, while Bennani and D'Aste had two separate near misses with the barriers.

### Qualifying

Having led free practice, Huff dominated qualifying to claim his fourth pole position at Macau and extend his championship lead. He set a new lap record for the circuit in doing so, beating the record previously held by teammate Menu. Muller was second and Menu was third, with Tarquini fourth and Monteiro fifth in the new Honda Civic. O'Young took the independents' pole position with sixth place just ahead of Yokohama Trophy challengers Michelisz and Pepe Oriola. Fellow trophy challenger D'Aste could only manage 11th, setting a slightly slower time in Q2 than in Q1. Fredy Barth brought out the red flags when he crashed at Police bend, the stoppage hampering Tom Coronel's effort to progress to Q2. Six drivers set times slower than the 107% time in Q1, three of which had their times removed as a penalty for not reporting to the weighing bay. They were given permission to start the races from the back of the grid.

### Warm-Up

Pole sitter Huff led the Sunday morning warm up session with Monteiro continuing to show potential in second and championship outsider Muller third. An off at the Melco hairpin for Barth brought out the yellow flags late in the otherwise undisturbed session.

### Race One

Huff started on pole position but it was Muller who grabbed the lead for the first three laps while Monteiro grabbed fourth from Tarquini. A crash at Lisboa further down the field on the opening lap involving the Yokohama Trophy contenders block the track briefly, the leading six cars built a gap to the rest of the field after this. D'Aste was able to resume but was later issued with a black and orange flag due to the damage sustained in the accident. A move by Huff at Lisboa to take the lead demoted Muller to second on lap three for a short time before the race leader collided with a barrier and broke his suspension, promoting Muller back into the lead. Muller led the rest of the race to claim his ninth victory of the season ahead of Menu and Monteiro on his first podium appearance for Honda. O'Young finished as the independent winner having started from the class pole.

### Race Two

Bamboo driver Alex MacDowall started from pole position on the reversed grid but a quick start by Michelisz soon put the Zengő Motorsport driver into the lead of the race. Menu made good progress from eighth and was soon up to fourth place behind Oriola, he got by the Tuenti Racing driver on the second lap. MacDowall reclaimed the lead from Michelisz but both drivers were easy targets for Menu who assumed the lead. MacDowall dropped to fourth where he remained until contact from Muller spun him into the barrier on the exit of the high speed Mandarin bend, Huff then took fourth off Muller. A long safety car period followed as work started to clear the debris from the collision, the race distance was extended and the action resumed on lap 8. Oriola out-braked himself going into Lisboa in a bid to pass Michelisz, putting them both in the barrier and bringing out the safety car for the second and final time. The race ended under the safety car with Chevrolet claiming a dominant 1–2–3 finish with Menu leading Huff and Muller. Huff secured his first World Touring Car Championship crown and Michelisz won the Yokohama Independents' Trophy despite not finishing the race.

## Results
### Qualifying

| Pos. | No. | Name | Team | Car | C | Q1 | Q2 | Points |
| 1 | 2 | Robert Huff | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | | 2:30.903 | 2:29.422 | 5 |
| 2 | 1 | Yvan Muller | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | | 2:30.950 | 2:30.144 | 4 |
| 3 | 8 | Alain Menu | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | | 2:31.490 | 2:30.488 | 3 |
| 4 | 3 | Gabriele Tarquini | Lukoil Racing | SEAT León WTCC | | 2:31.868 | 2:30.936 | 2 |
| 5 | 18 | Tiago Monteiro | Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic S2000 TC | | 2:31.366 | 2:31.539 | 1 |
| 6 | 20 | Darryl O'Young | bamboo-engineering | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | Y | 2:32.066 | 2:31.643 | |
| 7 | 5 | Norbert Michelisz | Zengő Motorsport | BMW 320 TC | Y | 2:32.458 | 2:31.670 | |
| 8 | 25 | Mehdi Bennani | Proteam Racing | BMW 320 TC | Y | 2:32.989 | 2:32.157 | |
| 9 | 74 | Pepe Oriola | Tuenti Racing | SEAT León WTCC | Y | 2:32.907 | 2:32.475 | |
| 10 | 11 | Alex MacDowall | bamboo-engineering | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | Y | 2:32.762 | 2:32.521 | |
| 11 | 26 | Stefano D'Aste | Wiechers-Sport | BMW 320 TC | Y | 2:32.945 | 2:33.025 | |
| 12 | 6 | Franz Engstler | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | BMW 320 TC | Y | 2:33.091 | 2:33.107 | |
| 13 | 15 | Tom Coronel | ROAL Motorsport | BMW 320 TC | | 2:33.181 | | |
| 14 | 22 | Tom Boardman | Special Tuning Racing | SEAT León WTCC | Y | 2:33.270 | | |
| 15 | 73 | Fredy Barth | SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED | SEAT León WTCC | Y | 2:33.358 | | |
| 16 | 14 | James Nash | Team Aon | Ford Focus S2000 TC | | 2:34.792 | | |
| 17 | 23 | Tom Chilton | Team Aon | Ford Focus S2000 TC | | 2:34.969 | | |
| 18 | 4 | Aleksei Dudukalo | Lukoil Racing | SEAT León WTCC | Y | 2:35.025 | | |
| 19 | 7 | Charles Ng | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | BMW 320 TC | Y | 2:35.180 | | |
| 20 | 66 | Andre Couto | Tuenti Racing | SR León 1.6T | | 2:35.218 | | |
| 21 | 88 | Fernando Monje | Tuenti Racing | SEAT León WTCC | Y | 2:35.307 | | |
| 22 | 46 | Kei Cozzolino | ROAL Motorsport | BMW 320 TC | Y | 2:39.020 | | |
| 23 | 77 | Jo Merszei | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | BMW 320si | Y | 2:40.785 | | |
| 107% time: 2:41.466 |||||||||
| — | 82 | Henry Ho | Five Auto Racing Team | BMW 320si | Y | 2:42.170 | | |
| — | 55 | Celio Alves Dias | China Dragon Racing | Chevrolet Lacetti | Y | 2:43.630 | | |
| — | 81 | Eurico de Jesus | Five Auto Racing Team | Honda Accord Euro R | Y | 2:43.816 | | |
| — | 50 | Felipe De Souza | China Dragon Racing | Chevrolet Lacetti | Y | no time set | | |
| — | 51 | Kin Veng Ng | China Dragon Racing | Chevrolet Cruze LT | Y | no time set | | |
| — | 78 | Mak Ka Lok | RPM Racing Team | BMW 320si | Y | no time set | | |
* Bold denotes Pole position for second race.

### Race 1

| Pos. | No. | Name | Team | Car | C | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
| 1 | 1 | Yvan Muller | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | | 9 | 23:08.977 | 2 | 25 |
| 2 | 8 | Alain Menu | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | | 9 | +0.915 | 3 | 18 |
| 3 | 18 | Tiago Monteiro | Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic S2000 TC | | 9 | +1.297 | 5 | 15 |
| 4 | 3 | Gabriele Tarquini | Lukoil Racing | SEAT León WTCC | | 9 | +1.967 | 4 | 12 |
| 5 | 20 | Darryl O'Young | bamboo-engineering | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | Y | 9 | +11.519 | 6 | 10 |
| 6 | 15 | Tom Coronel | ROAL Motorsport | BMW 320 TC | | 9 | +55.136 | 13 | 8 |
| 7 | 6 | Franz Engstler | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | BMW 320 TC | Y | 9 | +1:04.037 | 12 | 6 |
| 8 | 73 | Fredy Barth | SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED | SEAT León WTCC | Y | 9 | +1:09.730 | 15 | 4 |
| 9 | 11 | Alex MacDowall | bamboo-engineering | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | Y | 9 | +1:16.524 | 10 | 2 |
| 10 | 22 | Tom Boardman | Special Tuning Racing | SEAT León WTCC | Y | 9 | +1:22.194 | 14 | 1 |
| 11 | 4 | Aleksei Dudukalo | Lukoil Racing | SEAT León WTCC | Y | 9 | +1:22.372 | 18 | |
| 12 | 14 | James Nash | Team Aon | Ford Focus S2000 TC | | 9 | +1:23.053 | 16 | |
| 13 | 23 | Tom Chilton | Team Aon | Ford Focus S2000 TC | | 9 | +1:25.822 | 17 | |
| 14 | 88 | Fernando Monje | Tuenti Racing | SEAT León WTCC | Y | 9 | +1:29.347 | 21 | |
| 15 | 66 | Andre Couto | Tuenti Racing | SR León 1.6T | | 9 | +2:12.605 | 20 | |
| 16 | 82 | Henry Ho | Five Auto Racing Team | BMW 320si | Y | 9 | +2:19.429 | 24 | |
| 17 | 77 | Jo Merszei | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | BMW 320si | Y | 9 | +3:23.533 | 23 | |
| 18 | 50 | Felipe De Souza | China Dragon Racing | Chevrolet Lacetti | Y | 7 | +2 Laps | 27 | |
| 19 | 55 | Celio Alves Dias | China Dragon Racing | Chevrolet Lacetti | Y | 7 | +2 Laps | 25 | |
| 20 | 46 | Kei Cozzolino | ROAL Motorsport | BMW 320 TC | Y | 7 | Accident | 22 | |
| 21 | 78 | Mak Ka Lok | RPM Racing Team | BMW 320si | Y | 6 | +3 Laps | 29 | |
| Ret | 51 | Kin Veng Ng | China Dragon Racing | Chevrolet Cruze LT | Y | 5 | Suspension | 28 | |
| Ret | 2 | Robert Huff | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | | 4 | Accident damage | 1 | |
| Ret | 7 | Charles Ng | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | BMW 320 TC | Y | 4 | Accident | 19 | |
| NC | 5 | Norbert Michelisz | Zengő Motorsport | BMW 320 TC | Y | 3 | +6 Laps | 7 | |
| Ret | 26 | Stefano D'Aste | Wiechers-Sport | BMW 320 TC | Y | 2 | Accident damage | 11 | |
| Ret | 81 | Eurico de Jesus | Five Auto Racing Team | Honda Accord Euro R | Y | 1 | Accident damage | 26 | |
| Ret | 74 | Pepe Oriola | Tuenti Racing | SEAT León WTCC | Y | 0 | Collision | 9 | |
| Ret | 25 | Mehdi Bennani | Proteam Racing | BMW 320 TC | Y | 0 | Collision | 8 | |
* Bold denotes Fastest lap.

### Race 2

| Pos. | No. | Name | Team | Car | C | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
| 1 | 8 | Alain Menu | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | | 11 | 35:36.096 | 7 | 25 |
| 2 | 2 | Robert Huff | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | | 11 | +0.320 | 9 | 18 |
| 3 | 1 | Yvan Muller | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | | 11 | +0.889 | 8 | 15 |
| 4 | 18 | Tiago Monteiro | Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic S2000 TC | | 11 | +9.015 | 5 | 12 |
| 5 | 20 | Darryl O'Young | bamboo-engineering | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | Y | 11 | +9.786 | 4 | 10 |
| 6 | 6 | Franz Engstler | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | BMW 320 TC | Y | 11 | +10.127 | 11 | 8 |
| 7 | 4 | Aleksei Dudukalo | Lukoil Racing | SEAT León WTCC | Y | 11 | +11.024 | 18 | 6 |
| 8 | 73 | Fredy Barth | SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED | SEAT León WTCC | Y | 11 | +11.399 | 14 | 4 |
| 9 | 22 | Tom Boardman | Special Tuning Racing | SEAT León WTCC | Y | 11 | +11.582 | 13 | 2 |
| 10 | 88 | Fernando Monje | Tuenti Racing | SEAT León WTCC | Y | 11 | +11.900 | 19 | 1 |
| 11 | 66 | Andre Couto | Tuenti Racing | SR León 1.6T | | 11 | +12.412 | 18 | |
| 12 | 14 | James Nash | Team Aon | Ford Focus S2000 TC | | 11 | +20.496 | 15 | |
| 13 | 77 | Jo Merszei | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | BMW 320si | Y | 11 | +20.883 | 20 | |
| 14 | 50 | Felipe De Souza | China Dragon Racing | Chevrolet Lacetti | Y | 11 | +21.920 | 24 | |
| 15 | 55 | Celio Alves Dias | China Dragon Racing | Chevrolet Lacetti | Y | 11 | +22.760 | 22 | |
| 16 | 78 | Mak Ka Lok | RPM Racing Team | BMW 320si | Y | 11 | +24.741 | 26 | |
| 17 | 51 | Kin Veng Ng | China Dragon Racing | Chevrolet Cruze LT | Y | 11 | +25.589 | 25 | |
| 18 | 81 | Eurico de Jesus | Five Auto Racing Team | Honda Accord Euro R | Y | 11 | +26.243 | 23 | |
| 19 | 46 | Kei Cozzolino | ROAL Motorsport | BMW 320 TC | Y | 9 | +2 Laps | 29 | |
| 20 | 3 | Gabriele Tarquini | Lukoil Racing | SEAT León WTCC | | 9 | Floor | 6 | |
| 21 | 5 | Norbert Michelisz | Zengő Motorsport | BMW 320 TC | Y | 8 | Collision | 3 | |
| 22 | 74 | Pepe Oriola | Tuenti Racing | SEAT León WTCC | Y | 8 | Collision | 2 | |
| 23 | 26 | Stefano D'Aste | Wiechers-Sport | BMW 320 TC | Y | 8 | Accident | 10 | |
| Ret | 15 | Tom Coronel | ROAL Motorsport | BMW 320 TC | | 4 | Radiator | 12 | |
| Ret | 11 | Alex MacDowall | bamboo-engineering | Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T | Y | 3 | Collision | 1 | |
| Ret | 23 | Tom Chilton | Team Aon | Ford Focus S2000 TC | | 3 | Collision | 16 | |
| Ret | 25 | Mehdi Bennani | Proteam Racing | BMW 320 TC | Y | 3 | Collision | 27 | |
| Ret | 82 | Henry Ho | Five Auto Racing Team | BMW 320si | Y | 1 | Clutch | 21 | |
| DNS | 7 | Charles Ng | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | BMW 320 TC | Y | 0 | Accident damage | 28 | |
* Bold denotes Fastest lap.

## Final championship standings

| Pos | Driver | Points |
| 1 | Robert Huff | 413 |
| 2 | Alain Menu | 401 |
| 3 | Yvan Muller | 393 |
| 4 | Gabriele Tarquini | 252 |
| 5 | Tom Coronel | 207 |
| | Pos | Driver | Points |
| | 1 | Norbert Michelisz | 139 |
| | 2 | Pepe Oriola | 126 |
| | 3 | Stefano D'Aste | 122 |
| 1 | 4 | Franz Engstler | 114 |
| 1 | 5 | Alex MacDowall | 105 |
| Pos | Manufacturer | Points |
| 1 | Chevrolet | 1025 |
| 2 | BMW Customer Racing Teams | 650 |
| 3 | SEAT Racing Technology | 617 |
* Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of drivers' standings.