Kyle Mitchell finished fourth overall, first in rookie class, after an eventful race at the Shanghai F1 GP F.BMW Asia support event. Team mate, Akhil Kushlani was forced to pit to repair damage to his Sidepod after contact on the fourth lap and returned to finish 14th posting the second fastest lap of the race in the process.
A damp track saw all cars starting on wet weather tyres and Kushlani made a fantastic start from 9th on the grid to run as high as second place by the second turn. Mitchell made a more pedestrian start but was soon on the move. A group which included Jack Lemvard, Zahir Ali, James Grunwell and the two Eurasia cars were soon disputing third place. Lemvard made a break whilst the rest of the group fell over themselves. In the confusion Khushlani was hit and lost the rear of his sidepod. He was forced to pit to have the remains taped and set off half a lap behind.
Mitchell meanwhile was soon into fourth and chasing after Lemvard, closing the gap from six seconds to nothing over four laps. On the penultimate lap he out braked Lemvard into the final hairpin taking third place in the process. However all the good work was undone when he went into turn one too hot on the final lap and ran out of road handing the place back to Lemvard. He was quickly back on the tail of his adversary and they ran side by side into the final hairpin. However Lemvard had the inside line for the final turn and despite going through the corner side by side Mitchell just lost out by one tenth of a second.
“Both Akhil and Kyle had the pace to win today so it makes us very optimistic for the final event of the year at Zhuhai in three weeks time” reported Eurasia’s Mark Goddard. Mitchell is still second in the rookie championship, just 37 points behind Ross Jamison who has 514 points.. Zhuhai will have four races so it is still possible that the South African can become Rookie Champion. Akhil lies third in the championship with 418 points.
