Marlon Stockinger finished 3rd in the Rookie Cup, eighth overall, in round two of the Formula BMW Pacific Series held prior to the F1GP at the Sepang Circuit in Malaysia. Team mate, Aditya Patel, was forced to retire as a result of damage inflicted after he was punted into a spin at the first turn.
After the wet race on Saturday it was relief to start the race under blue skies. Aditya made a good start but was savaged by a red car in turn one, leaving him in last place. He was forced to retire with gearbox damage but he comes away for the event second in the rookie championship, fourth overall after this third place the previous day. Stockinger’s start was not as good as his team mates and he finished the first lap in eleventh place. However he was soon up to ninth and tagged onto a group of six cars racing for 5th place. Once past Harun Rasip he was able to home in on Shaharom and Chaves who were squabbling over fifth place with Roslan. Marlon failed to take seventh place by six tenths of a second.
“I was happy with my performance” reported Marlon “especially as my fastest race lap time was on the pace of the front runners”. Stockinger is a true car rookie and the team are happy with his progress. “In past seasons we have developed rookies like Kyle Mitchell and Daniel Ricciardo into truly competitive drivers and I am sure Marlon will be at the very front of the field within a few races” reported Eurasia’s Mark Goddard. “Aditya has already shown he can run at the front and we expect him to be competitive all season. We were really pleased with his performance and he was very unlucky to be forced to retire from the race today”.
