Richard Bradley finished third in round 12 of the Formula BMW Pacific Series held at the Singapore GP after a controlled drive in which he drove for points to come within 7 points of championship honours. Nabil Jeffri was less than 1.5 seconds behind the race winner after an exciting and entertaining race. Kotaro Sakurai was challenging for second place when he went down the escape road at turn 7 and battled his back through the field to 8th place whilst Duvashen Padayachee was in 8th when his front wing was damaged and he understeered back to 14th place.
Wong and Tunyo led at the start from Kotaro and Bradley with Kvyat and Sainz Jnr in hot pursuit. Sakurai attempted to take 2nd place at turn 7 but was forced down the escape road and rejoined at the back of the field. He then drove maturely to finish 8th after overtaking at least one car a lap. At the front Bradley’s strategy was to finish as this would make it almost impossible for his championship rivals, Tunyo and Oon, to take the championship with only three races to go. Kvyat dropped out when his timing chain broke leaving Wong, Tunyo and Bradley disputing the lead with Sainz Jnr closing in. Bradley pulled over and let Sainz by and then watched the action as Wong, Tunyo and Sainz tripped over themselves. Wong was later given a 30 second penalty for missing turn two whilst Sainz ran into the back of Tunyo on the final lap. Both drivers continued and they finished in that order with Bradley cruising in what became third place.
Nabil Jeffri was quickly up to fourth place from 5th on the grid and he spent the rest of the race catching the leading group, finishing less than 1.5 seconds behind the winner at the flag. Duvashen Padayachee was looking good for a top six finish when he dived up the inside of Sofyan at Turn 7. They collided and Sofyan retired whilst Duvashen continued with front wing damage. The resultant understeer consigned him to a 14th place finish.
“If we had started on the front row we would have gone for the race win but with Richard’s grid penalty we decided he should drive for points which he did very well. He showed a lot of maturity and demonstrated he will be a deserving champion” commented Eurasia team manager, Mark Goddard. “Nabil did an excellent job to get within a second of a podium finish whilst Sakurai paid for his mistake at T7 but then demonstrated he has great potential with a great come-back drive. Duvashen paid for getting stuck in traffic on the last three, quickest, laps of qualifying but he drove well to get up to 8th place and he was unfortunate to damage his wing. We have a very strong team and we are now really looking forward to Okayama where we can clinch the championship and hopefully see our three other drivers reach their full potential.”
The next round is at Okayama, supporting WTCC on October
