AFR championship: Stable performance from young drivers For Immediate Distribution May 26, 2009 The AFR championship returned to Shanghai International Circuit (SIC) with its very first points race of the 09 season (May 23 rd & 24 th ). The starting grid featured drivers from Asia Racing Team (ART), Champ Motorsport, March 3 (M3), PTRS racing team, Pena Motorsport and FRD racing team. The performance of young drivers was one of the major focuses for this weekend: Shanqi Zhang (PTRS), Zhiqiang Zhang (M3), Alon Day (M3) & the only female driver, Samin Gomez Briceno (M3), Suriya (M3), Luis Jorge (M3) & Rio Haryanto (ART) as well as Shohei Shiromoto (Pena Motorsport), are all teenage drivers from Asia and Europe. They represent the young single-seater drivers' competitive capacity of their regions. Having them on the grid signifies another step towards the increasing international flavor of the Championship, and will surely draw attention from not only Asia but also the rest of the world. Other than these young drivers, the race also featured several familiar names on the grid such as 2008 AFR champion Jim Kato (Champ Motorsport) and former A1 driver Tengyi Jiang (FRD Racing team). Qualifying: The first points race of the AFR Championship came back to Shanghai International Circuit £¨ SIC £© this weekend. The young Israel driver Alon Day of team March 3 (M3) grabbed pole position just as everyone expected. French driver Benjamin Rouget and Indonesian driver Rio Haryanto of Asia Racing Team (ART) qualified 2 nd and 3 rd respectively. In qualifying session, Alon Day (M3) grabbed pole position and set his best lap 1:47.773 in lap 7, which is almost 1 second faster than official practice. Benjamin (1:48.317) and Rio (1:48.571), two drivers from ART, both set their best lap in lap 8. Chinese driver Zhiqiang Zhang qualified 4 th and Luis, who was the 1 st in official practice captured 5 th . Jim Kato, the champion of 2008, qualified 6 th .
Race 1 & 2 The first round of the AFR Championship started on Saturday afternoon with fifteen cars on the grid. According to the qualifying results, Alon Day of March 3 (M3) racing team and Benjamin Rouget from Asia Racing Team (ART) started from the first row while Rio Haryanto (ART) and Zhang Zhiqiang (M3) were on the 2nd. The race had 1 formation lap + 10 laps. Alon Day, the young driver from team M3, managed to lead the race from the very beginning and finished with a 1:219 second lead. Rio Haryanto (ART), the young Indonesian driver, finished 2nd. The French ART driver Benjamin Rouget finished 3rd. The 2nd round started on Sunday afternoon. As a result of Saturday's race, Alon Day again started from pole, with Rio Haryanto next to him on the first row. Haryanto's two other teammates Benjamin Rouget and Luis Gorge Sa Silva started from the 2nd row. Alon Day got off to an excellent start and managed to create a gap after entering the first turn, with Haryanto following closely behind after lap 1 and struggling to find a way to overtake Day. After a few laps, Day and Haryanto were leading the race with at least a 5 second lead to eventually take 1st and 2nd on the podium. Rouget and Sa Silva wound up 3rd and 4th. Alon Day, the young promising driver from Israel, indicated after the race that everything went well:¡±I got off to a good start that helped me to avoid a close fight with other drivers.¡± Day also indicated that the AFR championship is the only race series that he planned to participate in 2009, and that he is confident to win the title. Rio Haryanto, the 2-time 1st runner-up said:¡± The race went well and I am glad to come back to this championship once in a while. Alon is an excellent driver and I had a great time racing with him.¡± Haryanto indicated that he will focus on single-seaters for now and wants to race in F3 within the next year. Jim Ka To, the 2008 AFR Champion, indicated that he had experienced technical problems during the race and that he felt lucky to finish 5th. ¡°I am happy to see so many young drivers to come to this championship and they made the races more competitive & interesting.¡± For more info please go to FRDwebsite:http://www.FRDsports.com |
