Today’s 2011 AFR Series Round 10 started at 09:30 under blue skies and a mild 18 degree temperature. As today’s start grid was determined by the finishing results from yesterday’s race, PS Racing’s Leopold Ringbom started in P1, with Champ Motorsport’s Kazuhiro Saeki 2nd and Audax PS racing’s Angelo Negro 3rd.

At the race start, Leopold got off to a typically fast start to immediately take the lead, with Audax PS racing’s Angelo Negro making his way past Champ’s Kazuhiro to move immediately into 2nd place during turn one. However, Audax PS racing’s Alexandra Asmoebrata, who had started 4th on the grid, experienced mechanical issues on the start and had to start from the pit. During the first lap, Leopold extended his lead on the field while Champ Motorsport’s Yuki Shiraishi, who had qualified 2nd on Saturday but DNF’d in Saturday’s race due to a mechanical issue, made a hard charge all the way from 10th on the starting grid up to 3rd place by the end of the first lap. By the third lap, Yuki Shiraishi passed Angelo Negro to move up to 2nd place.

With the race order now Leopold Ringbom, Yuki Shiraishi, Angelo Negro, Kazuhiro Saeki and Champ’s Sunny Wong, who had managed to move up to 5th by passing Audax PS racing’s Patrice Bonzom, the race continued in this order until lap 5, during which Sunny Wong passed both PS Racing’s Angelo Negro as well as teammate Kazuhiro Seaki in Turn 14 at the end of the long back straight while Angelo and Kazuhiro battled under late braking for the corner. The pass put Sunny Wong up to 3rd place. By lap 7, Kazuhiro got past Angelo Negro and quickly opened the gap, slowly closing on Sunny Wong. However, Sunny had already taken advantage of Angelo Negro’s fight with Kazuhiro to put a large gap between himself and the cars behind. At the checkered flag, it was Ringbom with the win, Yuki Shiraishi in 2nd, and Sunny Wong 3rd on the podium. In other action, FRD’s Diana Rosario, with setup issues resolved, improved her lap times by a full 5 seconds from yesterday to finish 6th after starting 8th on the grid and passing PS Racing’s Timothy Teo and Audax PS racing Patrice Bonzom during the race.

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After the podium Yuki Shiraishi said that he had made hard contact with teammate Kazuhiro Saeki while passing him during lap one, causing suspension damage which slowed his speed. For Hong Kong driver Sunny Wong, who had limited practice time Thursday and Friday, taking 3rd was his finest AFR finish to date; prior to this race weekend he had never driven AFR Series at the Shanghai International Circuit, and had only driven the track for a single race weekend in the FRD 2009 Formula Campus series.

The battle for the Championship will conclude during the final 2011 AFR Series race weekend, Rounds 11&12, in December at the Zhuhai International Circuit. Leopold now leads the series with 227 points to Yuki’s 182 points. When he was asked about the race today and the current point standings, he was also confidence in winning the 2011 AFR Series championship.And Alexandra Asmoebrata is in 3rd in the driver’s standings at 147 points. Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion of the 2011 AFR Series.

ROUNDS 10 RESULT , 2011 AFR SERIES