DTM ace Edoardo Mortara clinched a thrilling victory this afternoon in the penultimate round of the Audi R8 LMS Cup at the Shanghai International Circuit. Audi Ultra’s Marchy Lee was second, giving him enough points to take a narrow five point lead in the overall championship points’ standings over Adderly Fong. Fong of the KLM Racing team took the chequered flag in an impressive third place after fighting his way up through the field from ninth on the grid. The Amateur Cup title was sealed by Pauian Archilland J-Fly Racing’s Jeffrey Lee.
After the wet conditions of qualifying, this afternoon’s race saw all 16 drivers take the rolling start on Michelin’s innovative dry weather tyres. Pole sitter Alex Yoong got a clean start but succumbed to the charging Mortara on the opening lap of the race. Marchy Lee promptly pounced on Yoong, constantly putting the Malaysian ace under pressure until taking him for second place.
Fong also had a storming start, pushing past Aaron Kwok in the Audi R8 LMS Cup car on the first of what was to be 18 laps of scintillating racing. By lap seven, Mortara had Marchy Lee hot on his heels, Fong and Yoong were locked in battle and Kwok and AK Racing’s Alex Au were challenging for Amateur Cup title honours.
Competing for Audi Driving Dreams, this was Mortara’s debut race with the series and he had it far from easy with a spirited drive from Marchy Lee pushing him all the way to the chequered flag. Meanwhile, Team Erdos Xinan’s Sun Zheng had run wide on lap 13, letting Yoong and Fong past for third and fourth positions respectively, only for those positions to be reversed after an epic battle on lap 14 which saw Fong eventually win out over Yoong. Nevertheless, it was a strong drive from the Chinese driver Sun and he retained his fifth position all the way to the line to clinch 12 points ahead of Team Zhe Jiang Aotong’s David Zhu in sixth.
Pushing hard in his debut race meanwhile was Spark Motorsport’s Dino Crescentini. The American had started top of the Amateur Cup drivers on the grid. Although he lost places to the tussling professional drivers in the early stages of the race Crescentini went on to cross the finishing line in seventh, clinching maximum Amateur Cup points. Taking eighth and ninth places overall respectively was Wang Jian Wei of Team Betterlife and PD Group’s Sun Chao.
Next across the finishing line were the battling Jeffrey Lee and Alex Au in second and third places respectively in the Amateurs Cup and thus sealing Lee’s place as the Champion with one race still to run. Kwok took points for third place in the Amateurs Cup standings.
The final round of the Audi R8 LMS Cup takes place this morning (Sunday).
Audi R8 LMS Cup Official Website at: www.audir8lmscup.com
Round 11– Results
Pos
Comp No
Name
Class
Entrant
Time
1
27
Edoardo MORTARA (I) (G)
Audi Driving Dreams
32:59.987
2
1
Marchy LEE (HK)
Audi Ultra
33:04.559
3
68
Adderly FONG (HK)
KLM Team
33:07.465
4
8
Alex YOONG (MAL)
Audi GQ
33:13.443
5
33
SUN Zheng (CN)
Team Erdos Xinan
33:13.852
6
6
David ZHU (CN)
Team Zhe Jiang Aotong
33:33.038
7
3
Dino Crescentini (USA)
AM
Spark Motorsport
33:33.562
8
9
WANG Jian Wei (CN)
Team Betterlife
33:53.314
9
77
SUN Chao (CN)
PD Group Team
34:11.628
10
7
Jeffrey LEE (TPE)
AM
Pauian Archiland J-Fly Racing
34:18.720
11
23
Alex AU (HK)
AM
AK Racing
34:18.763
12
99
Massimo VIGNALI (I)
Team Chengdu New Elements
34:48.305
13
88
Aaron KWOK (HK)
AM
Team Audi R8 LMS Cup
34:54.978
14
66
ZHANG Ran (CN)
AM
Audi Castrol
+1 lap
15
75
Clifford CHEN (TPE)
AM
J-Fly Racing Team
+1 lap
16
13
Adrian FU (HK)
AM
FuSpeed Racing
+1 lap
(AM) Amateur Cup Competitor
(G) Guest Driver
Fastest Lap: Marchy Lee/Audi Ultra/1:48.965
Overall Classification (top 5)
1
Marchy LEE (HK)
204
2
Adderly FONG (HK)
199
3
Alex YOONG (MAL)
152
4
SUN Zheng (CN)
117
5
WANG Jian Wei (CN)
74
Amateur Cup Classification (top 5)
1
Jeffrey LEE (TPE)
172
2
Alex AU (HK)
141
3
Aaron KWOK (HK)
111
4
ZHANG Ran (CN)
106
5
Adrian FU (HK)
101
