Pole sitter, Rafael Suzuki, had too much wheel spin at the start and was down in fourth place after the first turn. His Team Goddard team mate, Frederic Vervisch, made a better start from second on the grid and took the lead from PTRS Racing’s Matt Howson and Hamad Al Fardan of Team GFH. Vervisch put in a stunning first lap and pulled out a good lead whilst Howson and Hamad squabbled over second place. The latter attempted to pass around the outside of turn one on the second lap and dropped to sixth place after a grassy excursion. This left Howson to fend off Suzuki, the pair rarely more than a few car lengths apart for the remainder of the race. Several times the Brazilian was very close but was unable to find a way past. Suzuki entertained the crowd with a high speed spin at the final turn on the last lap, losing only a couple of seconds in the process!
Meanwhile Al Fardan had got his head down and was on the tail of Aran Racing’s Arturo Gonzales by the penultimate lap. They were side by side through turn nine and into turn eleven Hamad lunged at Gonzales, spinning the Mexican. Al Fardan finished fourth on the road but was given a time penalty for the move and dropped back to fifth behind Gonzales. David Julian was Promotion Class champion, finishing behind Paul Ip.
Vervisch goes into the second Zhuhai round tomorrow full of confidence but with Howson, Suzuki, Gonzales and Al Fardan next up on the grid an exciting race is expected.
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