Chinese GP: Race Notebook
motorsport-live.com April 24th, 2016
It was surely a race to the flag for
Harry Chapman in his Silver Arrow, but after alot of drama for him in the first two races, he managed to fend off
Aki Lipponen, winner of Japan, to win the third Grand Prix of 2016 in front of a sold out crowd here in Bejing, China. But, as usual, not without controversy.
The Russian on the Outside:
"I tried to overtake
Lipponen and had way more grip, and going down the outside, suddently there is
Panther parked there. ****** idiot. Blue flags are there for a reason,"
Chapman ranted after the race despite winning it.
Of course, the russian driver had a different version in store of the lap 24 incident. "I saw the leaders coming up and decided to let them through by going to the outside that corner, giving both enough space to drive past me through the apex. Where else should I go? Out on the grass or in the gravel? Get real."
Surikov was cleared of all charges by the race stewards.
Rossini Sandwich:
And those stewards had a field day when it came to drive through penalties, and the most bizarre incident happened in the third lap, involving the
Rossini of
Niilo Saarinen.
"I just braked into the corner, yes, I got a bit deep, and suddently, TWO cars run into my rear end, cutting bits off my rear wing and destroying the diffusor. Seriously?"
Saarinen told BBC's reporter Anne Lingerton after the race.
Both
Wolfgang Schmidt(VD) and
Nikolai Surikov(PAN) were awarded a drive through for causing an avoidable accident and both finished well out of the points, while
Saarinen recovered despite the damage and got some World Championship points in sixth.
North in the Wars:
A similar incident happened at the back of the field when
Kitano's veteran driver
Jenny North ran into the back of the
Lotus of
Iker Vidal and damaged the rear wing heavily, earning her very own drive through the pit lane.
"Was my bad," she said. "I did not realize that those
Lotus are THAT slow... honestly, what are we doing here? Racing, or driving school?" She did not make any friends with that comment in the
Lotus garage, that is for sure.
With Three Races in the Books:
Dieter Wexler and the
Rossini's lead the World Championship tables by collecting solid point finishes and podiums, with
Lipponen three points behind in the Drivers Championship.
Holtz and
Chapman in the
Steinmann are third and fourth in the standings and the team is just two points behind the italian squad, and looking at the qualifying results and the fact that
Chapman was flying today, they surely have the pace to win it.
The
Panthers need to get on with it and the biggest disappointment so far are the two
Kitano cars, as they are one of two serious GP teams... and
Lotus to not have a single World Championship point on the board.
Race Result:
Standings: