The 2010 Guia Race of Macau (formally the 2010 Guia Race of Macau, presented by Sociedade de Jogos de Macau) was the eleventh and final round of the 2010 World Touring Car Championship season and the sixth running of the Guia Race of Macau as a World Touring Car Championship round. It was held at the Guia Circuit on the streets of Macau on 21 November 2010. The race was part of the Macau Grand Prix weekend, headlined by the 2010 Macau Grand Prix Formula Three.
Chevrolet sealed their first manufacturers' championship while Sergio Hernández secured the Yokohama Independents' Trophy for the second time.
Race one was won by polesitter Robert Huff of Chevrolet RML, while Norbert Michelisz took his maiden victory in race two, driving for Zengő-Dension Team.
Background
The drivers' championship was decided after the FIA found the use of sequential gearboxes by BMW Team RBM at the Race of Japan to be illegal and both of their drivers, Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus were stripped of all points earned at the event. This meant Yvan Muller of the factory Chevrolet team secured the world drivers' championship title. Outgoing champion Gabriele Tarquini was still defending second in the championship ahead of Priaulx and Huff. Hernández was leading the Yokohama Independents' Trophy which was still to be decided.
Stefano D'Aste opted to miss the final round of the season in order to attend the Monza Rally Show, despite still being in mathematical contention for the Yokohama Trophy title. André Couto joined SR-Sport for the event, driving the car previously raced by Jordi Gené and Michaël Rossi. Local driver Jo Merszei joined Liqui Moly Team Engstler, as did Japanese racer Masaki Kano. Jacob & Co Racing ran a Honda Accord Euro R for Hong Kong driver Philip Ma and Portuguese team Team Novadriver Total ran a BMW 320si for César Campaniço. Another Honda Accord was entered for their driver Kuok Io Keong and Chan Kin Man raced a self–run Honda Civic Type R.
Report
Testing and free practice
Huff topped an interrupted opening test session on Thursday, with team–mate Alain Menu second. New champion Muller was fifth and Couto was the fastest of the local drivers in tenth. The first stoppage occurred just one lap into the session when Chan Kin Man and Andrei Romanov crashed at the Hospital Bend. Then ten minutes from the end, Kano clipped the barriers at the R–Bend to bring out the red flags again.
Huff topped the times in free practice one on Friday, Priaulx was second and Monteiro was third.
Free practice two saw Huff complete his testing and practice domination, topping the times with Muller second and Monteiro third for the second session in a row. The session had been delayed as barrier repairs were required following the preceding support race session with FP2 starting two hours later than scheduled. The session was not stopped at any point, however Mehdi Bennani spun his Wiechers-Sport BMW at R–Bend and Fredy Barth stopped after hitting the barriers at Faraway in his SEAT.
Qualifying
Having led all the practice sessions, Huff went on take pole position in a lengthened qualifying which went into a second day. The first session started on Friday afternoon but almost immediately the red flags came out when Tom Coronel hit the barriers at Fishermen's Bend. Once the barriers were repaired, the session resumed but Priaulx hit the barrier at R–Bend. He broke the front left wheel off his BMW and slowly returned to the pits but the session was stopped again as Kano spun his Engstler BMW at the first corner and was stranded in the middle of the track. Qualifying resumed once again but Kristian Poulsen brought the session to a half for a third time when he collided with the barriers at Paiol with his BMW ending up parked across the track. Scuderia Proteam Motorsport driver Hernández then crashed while trying to avoid Poulsen's stranded car. By this time it was getting dark and when the session restarted Muller set the fastest time with Huff second. Coronel stopped on track and Q1 was brought to a close after running for almost two hours. The race director decided to delay Q2 until the following morning as darkness set in.
After Q2 had taken place on Saturday morning, Huff took pole position and Michelisz qualified second. A race one grid penalty for the Hungarian driver would see Muller start alongside his Chevrolet team–mate on the front row and Menu would make it a Chevrolet 1–2–3. Muller had hit the barrier at Lisboa in the opening minutes while trying to get ahead of Couto. Monteiro was the leading SR–Sport driver by ending up fifth and Farfus was the leading BMW in sixth. Tarquini, Priaulx, Darryl O'Young and Couto completed the top ten.