Two incident packed races, the first held in very wet conditions the second having two red flag stoppages, saw both Lim and Chan taking their best results to date. Al Fardan won the first race with Patrizi winning the second.
The heavens opened as the cars lined up for the first race of the day and the conditions were just too wet to race. After a long delay the race was started behind the safety car, the race running under the safety car for almost half of the race distance. Once the safety car pulled in Al Fardan, Charlez, An, Patrizi, Lim and Salman produced a great race, these drivers swapping positions many times before the order finished in that order.
This was the first time Lim had driven a car in the wet “I learned a lot and I know this experience will help me to go better in the wet in the future. The car was really good I just lacked the experience to know where to push. Next race I will be on the podium!” said Lim. This was Chan’s first really wet race and like Lim he reported he lacked the confidence to really push but that now he had had the experience he will be more competitive in the wet.
The second race was almost dry but at the start several drivers went off at the first turn. These included An, Al Fardan, Salman, Boughey and Patrizi. Apart from Korean driver An Suk Won they all took the restart. Charlez, Patrizi, Ebrahim and Lim made up a tight group with several place changes each lap. The race was again stopped when Endo stopped in a dangerous position and the second re-start saw Patrizi grab the lead which he held to the finish. Charlez, Lim, Ebrahim and Boughey disputed second with Chan in close tow. Once Lim was past Ebrahim the top three seemed settled whilst Chan forced his way past Boughey and set off after Ebrahim, just failing to catch him. This was an impressive performance from Jonathan Chan.
“A good day for Minardi Team Asia” reported Team Manager Martin Quick, “Now that Aaron has had his first podium I am sure his confidence will be high and it will be the first of many. Jonathan’s performance was also extremely impressive and again it will have done his confidence a great deal of good”.
