Sean Gelael came away from Ordos leading the Asia Driver Class with two podium finishes in three races whilst Parth Ghorpade emulated his team mate with an overall podium in addition to a Class win. Anontnio Giovinazzi qualified on the front row for all three races and was second twice. He is now just four points behind the championship leader.
Qualifying for race one was extremely exciting with Dan Wells grabbing pole position by a hundredth of a second from Giovinazzi whilst the second qualifying session, which determines the grid for race three, saw the positions swapped by a similar margin.
Race one saw Giovinazzi finish a close second to Wells whilst Parth Ghorpade starred by grabbing third from fifth on the grid. This gave him Asian Class honours from team mate Sean Gelael. Sami Luka was 8th with Robin Tato 11th in the very competitive field.
Rain just before race two resulted in all but one competitor change to wet tyres on the starting grid. Wells and Giovinazzi initially led in the tricky conditions but it soon became apparent dry tryes were the correct choice as slick shod Yin Hai Tao swept through the field running five seconds a lap faster than the wet weather shod cars by the end of the race.
Race three was dry and Giovinazzi led from start to last lap with a small gap back to Dan Wells. However an electrical problem saw the engine die for over three seconds allowing Wells to sweep past and take the win from Giovinazzi. Sean Gelael drove his best race yet taking his first overall podium and Asian Class honours. Parth Ghorpade had run as high as third but an off course excursion resulted in the 5th place finish whilst Sami Luka was 9th with an engine issue. Robin Tato crashed on lap two after being assaulted from behind at the final turn.
“We were all disappointed for Antonio in the last race, he drove really well and deserved to win” reported Eurasia’s Mark Goddard. “Sean is improving with every race, as is Parth who also had a third place finish this weekend. Sami could not show his true potential after his engine problem whilst Robin was really unlucky in the final race”
The next round of the series will again be held at Ordos in August.
