Press Release 18 / 2011

4^th September 2011

Once again Mathéo Tuscher

Mathéo Tuscher won another race in the Formula Pilota China Series this weekend, the series this time appearing on the programme with the FIA GT1 World Championship. The race meeting was held at Ordos, in Inner Mongolia. With eight races run in the twelve race series, Mathéo leads the series with 126 points over the more experienced driver Luis Sá Silva (108 points) and Dustin Sofyan (83 points). Mathéo was joined by new team-mate, the Venezuelan driver Samín Gómez. The rules are very similar to the Italian Formula Abarth series, with one qualifying session and two races each weekend. The grid for the second race is formed based on the fastest lap set by each driver in race one.

It rained during the night but the track was dry by morning, even so the session had to be red-flagged after just five minutes. By then Mathéo was up to 2^nd and on his second run with new tyres he managed to claim an impressive pole. Samín was less happy as a mistake on her out lap and a malfunctioning fire extinguisher meant she missed the rest of the session and had to start race one from dead last.

Mathéo started well and took the lead with Sá Silva close on his tail for a long time. Eventually he managed to pull away and by the end of the race he was 4 seconds clear. However, after the race he was judged to have jumped the start and was awarded a 30 second penalty which dropped him back to 6^th and handed victory to Sá Silva. Samín got a good start and gained 5 places in the first four laps. She then set about closing the gap to Seatter, although she was also having to watch her back because Sofyan, who made a mistake at the start and dropped back, was busy making up places. She had a go at Seatter on the last lap but it didn’t quite work, so she had to settle for crossing the line in a very respectable 6^th place. Of course once Mathéo was penalised, her position in the classification improved to 5^th.

Mathéo won Race 2 convincingly with a lights-to-flag victory, increasing the gap steadily and to come home 4.8 seconds ahead of Sá Silva. Samín started from 6^th and was able to hold position for several laps and even managed to overtake Sofyan. She spent the next few laps defending her 5th place, until Li, who was 3rd, spun and fell back. Samín and Sofyan both managed to get past, but Sofyan took the opportunity to attack. Samín tried to repass him but damaged her front wing so badly that she had to pit and have it replaced. She went back out and finished the race in 10^th.

Championship standings: 1^st Mathéo Tuscher (CZ), 126 points; 2^nd Luis Sá Silva (ANG), 108 points; 3^rd Dustin Sofyan (INA), 83 points; 4^th Tin Sritrai (THAI), 60 points; 5^th Chi Cong Li (CHIN), 53 points; 6^th David Zhu (CHIN), 39 points; 14^th Samín Gómez (VEN), 9 points

Next race: 5^th/6^th November in Guangdong (China)

For more information:
http://www.formulapilotachina.com/english/team