21 Jun 2013 Pan Delta Circuit Hero One Race 2: Mercedes C63 cleans up

At 10:40 on 16 June 2013, the crowd is beginning to gather at Zhuhai International Circuit and the car park outside the circuit gates are already filled. After witnessing a great race yesterday between Sun Tit-Fan and Mario Ferraris, they are eager to come back for more.

Today the weather is dry and the track is dry. The cars should be able to better their lap times from yesterday. The cars line up on the grid according to their finishing order in yesterday's race. Sun Tit-Fan is therefore on pole position with his Mistubishi Evolution, with Mario Ferraris' Mercedes C63 alongside. Zhu Xiao-Dong is third in his BMW M3.

The red lights are off and the race begins. Sun Tit-Fan makes a good start and leads Mario Ferraris into the first corner, the duo soon breaks away from the rest of the field. Before the end of the lap at turn 12, Mario makes his move by going down the inside line and the two cars go round the corner side by side, Sun is certainly not going to give up the lead without a fight. As the pair exit the corner the Mercedes has a slight edge and completes the pass before they arrive at turn 14.

Behind them, no. 8 Wong Yong is charging forward in his Subaru. He has a small problem at the start and falls to the back but now he is passing about 2 cars per lap to make up his loss. By lap 5 he has reached 8th position. At the same time, Sun Tit-Fan, who has been running directly behind Mario Ferraris, slows down and pits. It seems that a mechanical gremlin has hit his car.

Mario Ferraris thus run unchallenged as he begins to lap backmarkers. After passing them, he sets a best lap of 1:42, 10 seconds faster than he managed on the damp track yesterday.

While the race winner is more or less decided, no. 26 Field Lee John's Atom and no. 11 Ro Li-Hang's Mitsubishi are still battling for fourth position overall. While the Atom is light and nimble, Ro's Mitsubishi is powerful and well tuned, making this an intriguing match up. At turn 4 on lap 8, Ro's Mitsubishi gets too anxious and loses the car a little. The mistake means he is no longer within striking distance of Field Lee John.

In the end, Mario Ferraris wins the race by 1:10s from Li Qing-Xin. Mario's Mercedes C63 is so superior he laps everyone up to the third placed driver. Bill O'Brien takes third place in his G20T.