22 August 2018
Suzuka – The 2018 Ferrari Challenge Asia-Pacific round five will take place on the 5.807 km Suzuka circuit in Japan from 23 to 25 August alongside the 2018 Intercontinental GT Challenge Suzuka 10 Hours race. A total of 38 race drivers, including ten from Japan, will take to the track for three rounds of free practice before returning on Friday for the first qualifying session and Race 1, while Qualifying 2 and Race 2 will take place on Saturday.
Trofeo Pirelli. Following the last race held on 1 July at Fuji International Circuit, Alex Au from Hong Kong has overtaken Philippe Prette, moving from second place to lead the table standings in the Trofeo Pirelli class with 113 points. Prette isn’t too far behind with 97 points and in third place is Renaldi Hutasoit from Indonesia with 78 points. Expect to see some fast and furious battles in this class as the fight for supremacy continues.
Coppa Shell. It was two wins in a row for Tani Hanna from Lebanon in the Coppa Shell class at the last round in Fuji, thus solidifying his lead at the top of the table with 133 points. In second place is Tiger Wu of Chinese Taipei with 82 points, followed very closely by Yanbin Xing of China with only 2 points separating them. It will be interesting to see what strategies Xing will deploy this weekend to try to move up the table before heading into the Singapore leg in September.
Coppa Shell Am. Meanwhile, David Dicker from Australia continues his lead in the Coppa Shell AM class with a total of 144 points after once again winning both his races in Fuji, widening his lead to 49 points over Grant Baker from New Zealand who has 95 points. Min Xiao from China is a close third with 90 points.
Race Schedule. Follow all the action by our Challenge drivers who will undertake three rounds of practice sessions tomorrow, with the first race on Friday at 3:40 PM local time and the second race on Saturday at 3:30 PM local time.