Frederic Vervisch of Eurasia associate team, Team Goddard, took his second win of the A1GP weekend at Zhuhai in China from Hamad Al Fardan. Rafael Suzuki of Team Goddard was third after a thrilling race with Matt Howson.
At the start Howson was off the line quickest and led into turn one with Vervisch right on his tail. The pair ran side by side for most of the lap before Vervisch swept around the outside at the fast turn ten and that was the last the field saw of him. Al. Fardan had out braked Rafael Suzuki into turn seven on the first lap and was soon on the tail of Howson. Once past Howson at turn one he tried all he could to close the gap on Vervisch, running out of road on the exit of T14 on occasion so hard was he pushing, but to no avail as the Belgian was able to control the three second gap he had opened up on the first two laps.
All the excitement was behind the leading pair with Howson defending hard but fairly to keep Suzuki at bay. On the third lap the pair ran through turn one side by side but without a place change and they tried the same again on lap six at turn nine. Again Howson stayed in front and the delayed Suzuki was forced to defend against Arturo Gonzales who had caught the battling duo.
Lap seven saw Suzuki again attack Howson into turn one, he was unsuccessful and it allowed Gonzales to get alongside and they ran side by side through turn three with Gonzales having to give way at turn four. However Gonzales was again alongside at turn seven, the Mexican just failing to find a way past. This had given Howson some breathing space but a mistake at turn 11 resulted him running wide and this allowed Suzuki and Gonzales to catch up again. The three were side by side down the pit straight and this time Suzuki was finally able to force his way past. Howson was just able to hold off Gonzales and whilst they fought Suzuki was able to pull away over the final two laps and finish a comfortable third whilst Howson was just able to hold off Gonzales at the line. It was a great race between the three young drivers and kept the large crowd entertained.
David Julian, of Team Goddard, was again the Promotions Class victor. Vervisch now has a 13 point over Hamad Al Fardan but there are still 14 races to go over the final four events of the season so the championship is wide open. The next round will be held at Batangas Circuit in the Philippines on January 12-13th.
