07 agosto 2016
Sepang, 7th August 2016 – The fourth round of the Asia Pacific Ferrari Challenge ended today at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia amidst very high track temperatures hovering around 50 degrees Celsius. If the first race was dramatic, the second was spectacular. Despite the fierce battle among the 26 drivers in the field, Steve Wyatt from Australia and Chinese Liang Wang repeat their wins from Race-1 in their respective classifications. Huilin Han from China took the Pirelli AM classification.
Trofeo Pirelli. Steve Wyatt started in pole position once again; this is after all one of his favourite tracks. In the face of wheel to wheel battle with Indonesian Renaldi Hutasoit at the start, Wyatt managed to distance himself from the pack after 3 laps. Wyatt proved unbeatable and came in first for the second time this weekend. Hutasoit took second spot, closely followed home by fellow compatriot David Tjiptobiantoro. Florian Merckx from Belgium found himself starting at the back of the grid due to a pit-lane infringement. Despite fighting his way up to fourth position at the end of lap 7 and taking the fastest lap time of 2”11.909, the gap was simply too wide for him. With this victory, Wyatt extended his lead in the standings over Hutasoit and Merckx. Both challengers have the races in Singapore and Fuji as well as Finali Mondiali in Daytona to try and play catch-up.
Pirelli AM. Xin Jin from China was keen to continue his winning streak in the Pirelli AM classification and found himself leading his classification up to lap 13 when he had to suffer a drive-through penalty. Fellow compatriot Huilin Han, who was following closely behind, took the opportunity to forge ahead and found himself at the top of the podium steps. Eric Cheung from Canada finished second behind Han while Jin grabbed the consolatory final spot on the podium.
Coppa Shell. Liang Wang from China maintained his lead in the Coppa Shell standings table with an easy win over Ken Seto from Japan and Sam Lok from Hong Kong, second and third finishers respectively. Seto and Lok, despite trying to pull off an exciting come-back to chase Wang, simply could not find the opportunity to overtake him. The Gentlemen’s Cup went to Paul Montague from Australia.
Next Round. The next round marks the return of the Ferrari Challenge to Singapore’s street circuit after an absence of 4 years in support of the Formula One Grand Prix from 16 – 18 September.