Filipe Souza
Local racer Filipe de Souza has won both legs of this year’s edition of the Macau Guia Race for touring cars.
At the wheel of an Audi RS3 LMS TCR, Souza sprinted to a win in race two from pole position earned on Saturday with a win in race one.
When the race began on lap two, Souza had a poor start from third following a lap behind the safety car. He soon benefited from that, however, as front-row starters Andy Yan and Lo Sze Ho were involved in an incident at Lisboa Bend that created a partial blockade that Souza managed to evade, creating a comfortable leading gap.
Ahead of the field, Souza maintained the gap between his car and Hu Heng who finished second. Souza’s position was never at risk. Another Macau racer – Cheong Chi On – completed the historical podium. No Macau racer has ever won the Guia Race.
In race two, Souza had a great start from the lead, pulling ahead of Leong Keng Hei and Cheong Chi On who pursued at an incredible pace. At the first pass by the finish line, Souza already had an advantage of about five seconds from Leong.
Failing to brake at Lisboa Bend while moving up the field, Chan Weng Tong eventually stalled the driver immediately behind him.
This allowed Lo Sze Ho to move into second place just before the safety car was deployed to Yiu Lung’s car that had stopped on the track near Fishermen’s Bend after crashing into the barriers.
At the end of lap four, Lo tried to hold the other competitors behind him and give himself a gap to catch Souza as soon the safety car pulled to the pits. However, Lo was eventually overtaken by Cheong who could not brake behind him.
Cheong attempted to give back the place but Lo refused to overtake him as the race was under yellow flags, a situation that gave Souza an unexpected lead.
After the restart, another incident, this time with Jason Mok, prompted another safety car deployment that lasted until the last lap of the race. At the release, Yan clipped Lo at Mandarin Bend causing the most severe accident of the whole weekend, with Lo’s car destroyed.
Lo and at least one other driver (Ryan Wong), who crashed into Lo’s spinning car, were taken to the hospital but, according to information from the drivers, they are well and had gone to the hospital as a precaution.
Since the race was red-flagged at that time, the final classification was attributed according to the previous lap, with the win attributed to Souza, and Lo coming second and Yan third.
