Rahel Frey of Castrol Racing Team leads the Audi R8 LMS Cup 2016 overall driver classification after taking podiums in both opening rounds. It was a historic weekend for the Cup as thousands of fans came out to the Shanghai International Circuit to witness the 50th race of the GT3 series. Estonian Martin Rump of Champion Racing Team finished the weekend second overall, ahead of Belgian Alessio Picariello of MGT Team by Absolute.
The weekend saw the Cup launch of the new generation Audi R8 LMS amidst the arrival of a new generation of drivers. With five different drivers across two podiums, the weekend served to highlight the competitiveness of the 2016 Cup line-up.
In an eventful Round 1, Rump secured a lights-to-flag victory ahead of Marchy Lee of Audi Hong Kong and Frey. Lee promptly worked his way up from fifth to second in the early stages of the race, with Frey piling increasing pressure on to him as the race progressed. Lee held her off to finish just one-tenth of a second ahead of the Swiss GT specialist.
Defending Cup champion Alex Yoong of Audi TEDA Racing Team steadily climbed from eighth to finish fourth despite contact with a hard-charging Picariello. 21-year-old Pole Jan Kisiel of KCMG stormed in at sixth, meaning that three of the top six drivers were young newcomers to the series.
With all three service teams represented on the podium in the season opener of the Audi R8 LMS Cup, the series continues to set new standards of competition and service quality for one-make racing in Asia.
In Round 2, Frey put in a wheel-perfect performance, finishing first from pole and recording the fastest lap of the race despite the additional 20 kilos of success ballast from her Round 1 win.
Behind her in the field, Yoong got past Picariello, Rump and Marchy Lee, only to lose the battle for second place to the young Belgian, Picariello. Cheng came back strongly in Round 2 after a disappointing first race, charging ahead of Rump in the closing stages finishing fourth.
The fight for the Amateur Cup was no less dramatic. In Round 1, Jeffrey Lee of Team Audi Volkwagen Taiwan clinched victory ahead of fellow Taiwanese Johnson Huang of Absolute Racing and Chinese Sun Jing Zu, also of Absolute Racing. Round 2 saw Huang finish first, followed by Sun with Lee completing the podium.
Kevin Chun of J-Fly Racing by Absolute made Cup history with back-to-back race wins in the newly founded Masters Cup, the new classification for Amateur Drivers driving the previous generation Cup car.
With the championship off to a competitive start in Shanghai, the Cup will return for Rounds 3 & 4 on July 23-24 at the Chang International Circuit in Thailand.
Before then, the all-Asian Audi team will compete at the 24 hours Nürburgring for the second year running. Alex Yoong, Marchy Lee and Cheng Congfu will join Shaun Thong, who is part of the Audi Young Driver Development Programme, to take on the “Green Hell” on 26-29 May.
