GT Radial Eurasia Motorsport competed today in the first round of the brand-new eight-round E1 Championship. In conjunction with GT Radial Philippines, #11 Inigo Anton and #12 Joaquin Garrido completed the two opening rounds of e-sport series, and for Anton, it was quite a day as he recorded a runner-up position and a fighting fourth place.
With 22 cars in the field representing seven different nations, the Malaysian round was split into practice and then just a five-minute qualifying session ahead of the sprint race and then the reverse grid event. Having topped the practice session, Anton was also on good form for qualifying, initially setting the pace before ending the session in a strong third position overall.
The start wasn’t his best, initially dropped one position, but he was soon on the move however, passing Hakimi and then getting into a great battle with Ayman Aqeem who then suffered a puncture. With Naquib Azlan spinning away his place ahead, Anton ran in third position and within striking distance of the two ahead heading into the last lap. A great move down the inside into the final corner saw him pass Mika Hakimi and take a superb second position at the flag.
With the top-15 finishers from race one grid being reversed for the longer 30-minute race, Anton lined up 14th with it all to do. A cautious start was followed by a string of quick laps that moved him fifth by lap five and was soon up to third position before pitting for a fresh set of tyres. With some ahead opting not to stop, the field had subsequently spread out, making progress more difficult but he was able to pass of Yevan David in the closing stages to finish in fourth position.
GT Radial Eurasia Motorsport teammate Joaquin Garrido had a tougher opening two rounds of the series, but none-the-less steered clear of trouble to secure a top ten in the Sprint Race. Contact courtesy of a rival Daniel Ren Ooi (who received a post-race penalty) in the Reverse Grid race however saw him drop to 14th position but as a team, the Filipino driver pairing secured 42 points in total, enough to secure fourth position overall in the championship from the Malaysian opening round of Season Zero.
Inigo Anton is fourth in the drivers’ standing with 32 points, while Joaquin Garrido is 11th with ten points heading next week to Shanghai, China.
