New Eurasia driver, Tanart Sathienthirakul, was third in round 8 of the Formula Masters China at Ordos Circuit in China. He had finished fourth in the previous race for a good debut in the series. Matthew Solomon finished seventh in both races whilst team mate, Kevin Pu Jun Jin, was 10th in race one and ninth in race two. The series now moves to the new Inje Circuit in Korea.
Qualfiying saw Tanart and Matthew penalised, along with almost half the field, for setting their fastest time under yellows in sector one. They would start 6th and 7th whilst Kevin was 11th on the challenging 3.5km circuit. It was strange move by the officials considering sector one has six corners with no way of showing where drivers slowed, or not as the case may be, in that sector.
The race was started under the safety car and in a confused start Tanart was soon up to fourth which he maintained to the finish, getting faster as he became comfortable in the car. Matthew Solomon finished 7th whilst Kevin went off at the start in turn one in a brave over-taking move. He dropped to last and provided most of the action in the race by overtaking several cars to make it to 10th.
Race two was held early morning in cool conditions and saw Tanart move up to third on lap one with a brave move up the inside of two cars at turn one. He then had a race long dice with Ren Nagabuchi for second place, setting the fastest first and second sector times in the process. Tanart was delighted to achieve his first podium in car racing and he will be a factor for race wins in Korea. Team mate, Solomon, again finished seventh after a subdued weekend and the team expect him to be back on the pace in Inje. Kevin again had an exciting race which included some wheel to wheel contact on the first lap. He is six points off the lead in the China driver class.
