Event 3 for the AFR Series – Another Dramatic Weekend for the AFR Series

Date: Jun 18-19th,2011

Location: Zhuhai International Circuit (ZIC)

Round：5&6/12 Rounds

The 5th & 6th Round of the 2011 AFR Series was held this weekend, June 18-19th, at the Pan Delta Race Festival.

Qualifying- another pole for Yuki

Qualifying started at 10:10am Saturday morning. With slick tires equipped the drivers all exited the pit lane at the start of the session with the exception of Alexey Karachev, who chose to start the session late to save his tires for the race. Qualifying was full of surprises as many were expecting PS Racing’s Leopold Ringbom to dominate qualifying after posting with a lead time of 1.5 seconds during Friday’s official practice. However, from the outset of the qualifying, Champ Motorsport’s Yuki Shiraishi of Japan placed himself at the top of the time sheet and managed to hold onto pole position. In the end, Champ Motorsport’s Alexey Karachev of Russia, who started qualifying with ten minutes left, managed to take P2 from Ringbom by five hundredths of a second, Ringbom ranked in third place.

Round 5- Ringbom Wins in Last Lap

After the dramatic qualifying session, round 5 of this weekend started at 03:10pm. When the red lights went off, PS Racing’s Leopold Ringbom got off to a quick start and managed to pass Champ Motorsport’s Alexey Karachev in turn one to immediately move up from P3 to P2. With Yuki Shiraishi leading from pole position, the lead three cars fought non-stop for the remainder of the race, far ahead of the pack. In the end, the focus of the race was between Yuki, Ringbom, and Alexey, constantly trading positions until eventually, Ringbom overtook Yuki in the last lap. A victorious Ringbom crossed the finish line 1.2 seconds ahead of Yuki, with Alexey in 3rd, after the incredible race-long battle for the International Category podium. In the Asian Category, it was Yuki with the victory, Tsutomu Achiha in 2nd, and Diana in 3rd after her exciting battle with Alexandra.

Round 6- Yuki Shiraishi Leads from Start to the end

Round 6 started at 10am, after a heavy downpour in the morning left the track in full wet conditions for the event. When the start lights went off, Yuki Shiraishi immediately passed pole sitter Ringbom to take the lead in turn one, with Alexey Karachev closely behind Ringbom in P3. However, during the first lap Alexey and Ringbom made contact in turn 11 and both were unable to continue the race. Following was a fierce competition between Victor Yung, Alexandra Asmasoebrata, Diana Rosario, Tsutomu Achiha, and Timothy Teo for the second and third place. Timothy Teo, who had started in the back of the grid for race 2 after his DNF yesterday, worked his way up to P4 by lap 3, and then took 3rd place from Diana Rosario in lap 6.What surprised us was he grabbed the 2nd place from Alexandra with just two laps to go. In the end, Yuki grabbed the champion of both the International Category and the Asian Category, followed by Timothy Teo in 2nd and Alexandra Asmasoebrata in 3rd.

After finishing the 5th & 6th rounds, the next AFR event, Rounds 7 & 8 on August 19-20 is prepped to be held at the famous Shanghai International F1 Circuit. Talking about the challenging track conditions in this upcoming weekends’ race, all the drivers are excited in anticipation. With several drivers with enough points to be in contention for the overall 2011 AFR Series win, the Shanghai races are sure to bring more thrilling race action to Asia Formula Renault.

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