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. Coincidentally, Ma (马) means horse, alluding to the engine under the bonnet.
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.
Ma fiercely fought 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 to win the 15-lap race.
Azcona finished second, while third place went to another Geely driver, Sweden’s Thed Bjork. Actually, Geely also took its first podium position earlier in Race 1 when another of its French racers, Yann Ehrlacher, finished third.
Geely announced its TCR World Tour championship participation 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, 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 official details have been revealed on the new Geely Preface TCR, but it’s likely a derivative of the previous Lynk & Co 03 TCR. Both the Preface and 03 are based on Volvo’s CMA platform.
The road-going versions of both models use Volvo’s 2.0 litre four-cylinder turbo Drive-E engine, which is manufactured by Sweden’s Aurobay. This company is now a division of Horse Powertrain, which is equally owned by Geely and Renault.
Race cars built to FIA TCR specification must be based on the same bodyshell and 2.0 litre four-cylinder turbo engine as the production road cars. Therefore, the championship is only contested by models that are homologated from performance models such as the Hyundai Elantra N and Honda Civic Type R.
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Wow. Real conti killer.
Fianlly malay ah beng wet dream come true.
Quality and robust, proven
Race Mod Enthusiast new favourite.
Imagine the world superbike the China ZXMOTO is now contesting with Ducati, Yamaha, Kawasaki etc and now the Geely is capable to challenge the big player like Honda Civic Type R in TCR. The China motorsports are now rising and traditional giant need to be aware of.
We saw it happening first with ZXMoto, now with Geely.
Siapa copy dulu dia menang.