Tim Sugden held onto a narrow lead in the Asian Carrera Cup Championship in Zuhai, China despite problems with his car.

After qualifying in fourth place on the grid for Race One, the Bradford driver said his GruppeM Porsche had felt off the pace throughout practice and, although his engineers could not trace any problem, he could only finish third followed by a fifth in Race Two.

One bonus for Sugden was the early exit from the meeting of his main title rival Keita Sawa, from Japan.

Sugden has a two-point lead ahead of Australian F3 champion Christian Jones with the deciding race at the Macau GP meeting in two weeks.