Marrakesh ePrix | 29 Feb 20 | |||||
Mexico City ePrix | 15 Feb 20 | |||||
Santiago ePrix | 18 Jan 20 | |||||
Diriyah E-Prix Race 2 | 23 Nov 19 | |||||
Diriyah E-Prix Race 1 | 22 Nov 19 | |||||
Ma Qinghua (simplified Chinese: 马青骅; traditional Chinese: 馬青驊) (born 25 December 1987 in Shanghai) is a Chinese racing driver.
Ma became the first Chinese driver to win an FIA World Championship race when he won race two of the 2014 FIA WTCC Race of Russia.
Career
Ma has competed in such series as Italian Formula 3000 in 2005 and the British Formula 3 Championship. He also raced for A1 Team China at the China round of the 2005–06 A1 Grand Prix season. Driving for Beijing Hyundai, he won the China Touring Car Championship's 1600cc class drivers' title in 2011. Ma was added to HRT F1 driver development programme on 5 April 2012, and made history as the first Chinese-born driver to drive a Formula One car at an FIA-sanctioned event, a milestone described as "heralding an important step for Chinese motorsport". Ma also became the first Chinese driver to take part in a Grand Prix weekend when he replaced Narain Karthikeyan in the first Friday practice session of the Italian Grand Prix. He was given three more chances to drive the car in Friday sessions later that year. After HRT collapsed at the end of the 2012 season, Ma moved to Caterham, continuing the role of Friday test driver whilst racing for their GP2 Series team for the season. He made his debut GP2 Series race in 2013 Sepang GP2 Series round. Later in final stint, his lap time dropped to more than 2 minutes in every lap and finished only 21st in featured race, which is the last place in classified drivers. Later he was diagnosed with gastroenteritis leading to extreme dehydration by the medical team on track at Sepang and would not start the sprint race. In 2013 Chinese Grand Prix, he replaced Charles Pic to participate in the Free Practice 1 and became the first Chinese driver to drive in home Grand Prix session, but he was about 1.5 seconds off the pace to his teammate Giedo van der Garde and out of the 107% reference time to the quickest driver in Free Practice 1. Soon after the 2013 Chinese Grand Prix, Caterham team claimed that he would be replaced by Alexander Rossi for the rest of the 2013 season. The team performance looks revived after this replacement. In the 2013 Bahrain GP2 Series round, Alexander Rossi made his debut GP2 Series race and took a podium finish.