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[Asian Formula Renault] Matt Claims Second on Asian Formula Renault Debut |
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Tuesday, 30 May 2006 |
Matt Claims Second on Asian Formula Renault Debut
On the weekend of 27/28th May 2006 the Asian Formula Renault Championship moved to the Zhuhai International Circuit situated north of Macau on the south coast of China. Matt was in action for leading team Champ Motorsport who fielded a strong entry and claimed three of the top five positions with Matt leading the team home with a superb second place finish in only his first event in the Asian Formula Renault Championship.
The weekend didn't run without drama however as the first of the two scheduled races had to be cancelled due to tropical storms and monsoon driving conditions. The second race of the weekend ran to time and by the time the race started the track had dried sufficiently for the teams to fit dry slick tyres. For Matt who had qualified in 7th position the previous day this provided a good opportunities to move forward in the 10 lap race around the 4.3km Zhuhai International Circuit.
At the start Matt got away perfectly to move straight into 6th position before chasing down fellow 2005 UK competitor Sebastian Hothenthal. By lap 3 Matt had moved up to fifth before the safety car was deployed on lap 6 to recover an incident at turn 9. After two laps behind the safety car the green flag signified the restart with 3 drivers now all battling for the final podium place. As the cars approached turn one for the eighth time it was Matt who came out in third place with Hohenthal and Alexandre Imperato running wide into the gravel. Matt crossed the line in third but post race drama saw the second place driver disqualified for overtaking under yellow flag conditions and therefor deemed to gain an advantage.
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| left to right:- Henri Karjalainen (SWE), Pekka Saarinen (FIN) and Matt Shawyer (GBR) |
Matt said 'to finish second in my first event over here is a superb achievement, we looked strong in qualifying and I should have been higher on the grid but I made a mistake in the wet towards the end of the session and this limited our chances to go quicker when the track was drying. The team were superb all weekend and the car ran faultlessly. It was disappointing to fly half way around the world for one race but you can't control the weather and finishing second from 7th on the grid is excellent for me and the team and I am very happy for this result'.
The next round of the Asian Formula Renault Championship is at the F1 circuit of Sepang, Malaysia on 26th June and Matt hopes to be on the grid challenging for race victories.
Latest news and results at www.mattshawyer.com and www.zic.com.cn
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