Pekka wins IFC race in Shanghai
Pekka wins IFC race in Shanghai
Pekka Saarinen drove to the victory in Formula Renault's IFC serie's race in Shanghai. Pekka did fly to China straight from Finland vs. Sweden tournament which was held in Stockholm. Due the delayed flight Pekka arrived to Shanghai eight hours behind the schedule and he didn't get any laps in free practice sessions.
On Saturday there were also some suprises to come, cause the organisation did perform some maintenance jobs at the track and all the sessions were cancelled. The marshalls decide that there will be only one practice session, qualify and race at Sunday's timetable.
Finally at Sunday morning Pekka did get to the cockpit but he managed to drove only one lap before he was forced to retire due the rear suspension failure. Just before the beginning of qualifications the rain began and all the drivers went out with wet tires. Pekka caused an small shock to his competitors with 1,5 seconds pace before the second fastest driver. Pretty good result after difficult start of the weekend.
The race was started with flying start because the rain did get that hard that it would have been too dangerous to start with standing start. Pekka did control every lap with his own way and pulled out from the main group. At the finish line the gap to Francis Tija was about 30 seconds.
”After major difficulties this was an great example our performance. It was quite easy race for me, only problem was to keep up the concentration and try to avoid the worst water-filled spots.”
The next IFC race will be held at Shanghai, 12. -13.8..
24.07.2006
