Richard Bradley ended his chances of a win by crashing at Lisboa on the first lap whilst Kotaro Sakurai ran in second place for most of the race before dropping to fifth at the flag. Duvashen Padayachee climbed to ninth place from 16th on the grid whilst Nabil Jeffri battled home tenth minus his front wing after a first lap clash.
An exciting qualifying session was interrupted by red flags, the last of which cut short a lap by Bradley which had looked good for pole. He had to be content with third place with team mates Jeffri and Sakurai in fourth and fifth. Padayachee also rued the last session stopping red flag which ruined a much faster lap. Ironically the red flag was due to a huge accident suffered by Nabil Jeffri at Fishermans corner, the driver walking away unhurt from his wrecked car.
The Eurasia mechanics worked wonders to get Nabil’s car on the grid for the race which was held early on Sunday morning. Sainz, Tunyo and Bradley were jockeying for position on the run down to Lisboa on the first lap. Tunyo braked very late, Bradley even later which turned out to be way too late and he mounted the rear of Tunyo’s car, landing heavily and wiping out his front wing. “My mistake” reported a contrite 2010 Champion, Bradley. Further round the lap Wong spun blocking the track bringing out the safety car. Nabil lost his front wing on Wong’s car but he decided to continue rather than pit and change wings. Meanwhile Bradley pitted to fit a new wing and was then given a drive through penalty at the re-start for causing the Tunyo accident. This put him at the back of the field and he overtook many cars on a great drive which netted 17th place. “A moments rush of blood to the head deprived us of a win. It was Richard’s only big mistake all year ” reported Mark Goddard of Eurasia.
At the re-start Sakurai forged into second place and drove well for many laps to keep his rivals behind. However Nojiri forced his way past at Lisboa leaving Sakurai in third place, which he held until the penultimate lap when Blomqvist out-braked him at Lisboa and an opportunistic Sofyan followed him through.
Padayachee was up to 14th on the first lap and then made up five places over the race in a fine drive which netted him ninth place. His last victim was Nabil Jeffri who remarkably had only dropped to ninth place with a lap to go despite lacking a front wing. “The missing front wing made Mandarin bend too exciting” reported Nabil.
This was the last race for Formula BMW Pacific. Next year Formula Pacific will take its place and bumper grids are expected for the best driver development in the region, if not the World.
