Geely has claimed its maiden victory in the top-tier FIA TCR World Tour in just the first round of the brand’s first season with a Geely Preface TCR piloted by Chinese racing driver Ma Qinghua. Ma won Race 2 of the opening round of the 2026 TCR World Tour at Italy’s Misano circuit last weekend, after starting the race on Sunday from third place under reverse grid rules that took into account the results of Saturday’s race. He took second place as soon as he entered the first corner of the first lap. After a fierce battle with Briton Jenson Brickley’s Honda Civic Type R TCR and Spaniard Mikel Azcona’s Hyundai Elantra N TCR of the BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse team, Ma finished the 15-lap race in first place. Azcona finished second, while third place went to another Geely driver, Sweden’s Thed Bjork. In fact, Geely also took its first podium position earlier in Race 1 when another of its French racers, Yann Ehrlacher, finished third. Geely’s participation in the TCR World Tour championship was announced at the end of last year. The programme is run by Swedish racing firm Cyan Racing, which previously developed Volvo Polestar racing and road cars, and participated in the TCR World Tour from 2019 until last year with Geely sub-brand Lynk & Co. Over the course of seven years of racing, Lynk & Co Cyan Racing has won six world championships in the manufacturer category and three world championships in the driver category in the FIA TCR World Tour. No details have been revealed about the new Geely Preface TCR, but it can be expected that it will be a derivative of the previous Lynk & Co 03 TCR, as both the Preface and 03 are based on Volvo’s CMA platform. The production versions of both models are also powered by Volvo’s 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged Drive-E engine, which is manufactured by Aurobay in Sweden. Aurobay is now a division of Horse Powertrain, a company that develops and supplies internal combustion engine-based powertrains, also owned by Geely. Race cars built to FIA TCR specifications must be based on the same bodyshell and 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engine as the production road cars. That’s why the championship is only contested by models that are homologated from real performance models such as the Hyundai Elantra N and Honda Civic Type R. Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro. Compare prices between different insurer providers to save the most on your car insurance renewal compared to other competing services. Many payment method supported and you can pay with instalment using Atome, Grab PayLater or Shopee SPayLater. Use the promo code 'PAULTAN' when you checkout for 10% discount!
+62 others
