Success for Prette, Zang and Moon in the first race

Race 1 of the Ferrari Challenge Asia Pacific Round 3 took place today in Shanghai International Circuit as part of the yearly event Ferrari Racing Day. Drivers were welcomed to the track by warm weather, with air temperature exceeding 30 degrees during the race. This 5.451km track with 16 corners is quite demanding for tyres, the very hot tarmac putting additional strain on the rubber and giving a further challenge to the 23 Challenge drivers aligned on the grid.

Trofeo Pirelli AM. In the Trofeo Pirelli AM class, it was Philippe Prette’s (Blackbird Concessionaires) race to win again. It was his fourth win in five races this season, achieved after a good performance in Qualifying 1 that put him on the front row for the Race. After a good start, Prette had to give it all to manage a great recovery from Go Max (M Auto Hiroshima): after starting from 6th overall, the Japanese driver quickly made up ground and crossed the finish line in second. . He had chance to fight with Prette for the win, but he couldn’t find the gap in the few laps remaining till the checkered flag. Ringo Chong (Kunming Zhongzhuyuan DiLi) clinched the final position of the podium.

Coppa Shell. The Coppa Shell class saw the domination of Eric Zang (Denker Guangzhou). In fact, in this home race, Zang controlled the whole Saturday. He got the overall Pole Position in the morning, then leaded whole race and was the first one to see chequered flag, also posting the overall Fastest Lap of the race. Makoto Fujiwara (Cornes Tokyo) was 4th overall and runner-up in his class. Another Chinese driver, Michael Choi (Blackbird Concessionaires), crossed line third in class boarding on the podium as well.

Coppa Shell AM. Starting from pole in Coppa Shell AM class, Andrew Moon (Forza Motors Korea) was the clear victor and kept his lead all the way to the flag. Evan Mak from Chinese dealer Denker Guangzhou and Chinese driver Min Xiao (CTF Beijing) were the other two podium finishers in this order. Billy Fong of Blackbird Concessionaires was the winner of the Gentlemen Cup. Famous Chinese actor Alex Fong joined competition in this class as well, and finished the race after a very solid performance. Racing in Shanghai, the good results but the Chinese drivers made the day even more thrilling for the Tifosi on the grandstands.

Schedule Track action continues tomorrow for Oualifying 2 and Race 2 of the Ferrari Challenge weekend in Shanghai. Those will take place at 11:35am and 14:30pm local time respectively.