Pole man Luca Persiani had led from the start with Oshima second and Matsumara third after he forced his way past Sy on the first lap. The safety car was soon out with several cars littered around the track and this would prove to be the undoing of Persiani. He fell back from the tail of the safety car by several hundred meters, which is against the regulations which state you must keep within five car lengths unless the safety car lights go out signaling it will leave the track at the end of the lap. The stewards gave him a 25 second penalty for his transgression. Tyson Sy was by this time extremely red faced as he lost control of the car weaving to warm the tyres on the straight and spun down to about 16th place. His mistake cost him an almost certain podium finish no matter what lap the results were subsequently called.
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At the restart Persiani again drove away from the field. However on the sixth lap a multi- car crash blocked the track at Moorish Hill. Half the field were at a standstill waiting for the track to be cleared when Persiani arrived at seemingly unabated speed and crashed, putting himself out of the race which was then red flagged. The new FIA race suspension regulation came into play. This rule was well explained in the drivers briefing. All cars return to the grid where they line up in the order they were in when the red flag was shown. Those cars out of order should be moved until they are in their correct position, if necessary by allowing them to do a lap and rejoining at the back of the grid. As the track had been blocked, the last half of the field arrived back on the grid in front of the first half. The officials became very confused and at first attempted to restart the race in this jumbled up order. They then understood this was not correct so they attempted to wave cars past the safety car until they got the leader. This they duly did but they forced Oshima and Tsukakoshi to drive past the safety car and rejoin at the back of the field. By this time no one was sure who was meant to be where!
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The race restarted for a two lap sprint and Matsumara won. He was the undisputed winner but second place down was much debated. In the end the Stewards decided the only course of action was to declare the race before the red flag was brought out. This relegated Sy from fifth to eleventh and Pena from sixth to tenth.
“What a great experience, if only I had not had the accident in first practice I am sure I could have qualified in the top six and probably got on the podium” reflected Pena. “Next year I know I can race in the F3 race after gaining this experience of the circuit”.
Tyson Sy was unavailable for comment but Speedtech Team Boss, Edgen Dy-Liacco, said that “this is all good experience for Tyson and I am sure he learnt by it and it will make him a better driver. His qualifying performance was fantastic and he proved he is a real talent”
