Eighth place for T2 Motorsports in Race-2 in Shanghai

The 2019 season wraps up with fourth place in the GT3 class rankings for HubAuto Corsa and Yuya Sakamoto in the Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia. The second race held on the Shanghai track brings down the curtain on the Asian series without a podium for the 488 GT3 crew of Sakamoto and Marcos Gomes who were even forced to retire from the race due to a hydraulic jacks issue. The T2 Motorsports Ferrari, courtesy of David Tjiptobiantoro and Rio Haryanto, took eighth final place for their effort, fifth in the class. The weather conditions as the race got underway were near identical to those of Friday with 27 degrees in the atmosphere and 30 on the asphalt, at least ten less than previously expected. After qualifying in the morning, the Ferrari 488 GT3s of HubAuto Corsa and T2 Motorsports got the race going from tenth and eleventh grid position. As the lights went green Haryanto made a blinding start which saw him climb to eighth place in the space of a few bends. The ex-Formula 1 driver nevertheless saw his fight-back curtailed by a slower pace respect to his adversaries, so much so that the Indonesian dropped back to eleventh place a short time before the Safety Car entered, 53 minutes from the end. The race, which got back on its normal course six minute later, witnessed the Porsche of Van der Drift in command and, a little later, the opening of the pit stop window. Gomes entered the pit-lane 34 minutes from the end of the race; unfortunately the HubAuto Corsa 488 GT3 remained propped up on the hydraulic jacks, not allowing Yuya Sakamoto to return to the track or the title race. With a single Ferrari left on track now in the spotlight, David Tjiptobiantoro took up the task started by crew-mate Rio Haryanto at the beginning of the race. The T2 Motorsports car made several passes which allowed it to cross the finish-line in eighth final position, the last of which took place - as in Race-1 – on the very last lap. The chequered flag and post-race checks froze the results and rankings of the championship. In the overall standings, Yuya Sakamoto is the top Ferrari driver and closes in fourth position, third in the GT3 Silver class; in the Pro-Am rankings, Rio Haryanto is twelfth on 62 points. Among the teams, HubAuto Corsa takes the lowest step of the podium while T2 Motorsports finishes in thirteenth place.