06 Aug 2012 Fujiwara: Back with a vengeance

A blown engine in Race 1 may have spoilt Katsuaki Fujiwara's race, but did nothing to dampen his fighting spirit as the 38-year-old Japanese ace returned strong for Race 2.

A flawless take-off allowed Fujiwara to dominate with a lights-to-flag performance that allowed him to claim his third win of the season with a time of 29:38.581s. In his wake, Yuki Ito, Zamri Baba and Ryuichi Kiyonari gave chase. Lap 12 was the determining point of the 18-lap race. As Zamri successfully overtook Ito at Turn 1, this allowed Fujiwara to carve out a small gap at the front. On Lap 13, Kiyo drops out of the group when a malfunctioning brake caused him to run wide into the gravel.
 
The remaining four laps saw Zamri trying hard to close in on Fujiwara by consistently clocking the fastest laptime in each successive lap. However, Zamri was also forced to defend himself from Ito at the same time, especially when Ito tried a final move on the last lap. Zamri was able to maintain his position, but by then, was already, 0.655s behind Fujiwara.
 
With that, Zamri snared his second podium of the weekend, finishing second with a time of 29:39.236s. Ito also repleted his position in third with 29:39.656s.
 
The vastly differing results between Race 1 and Race 2 had affected the championship standings. Kiyonari, who had dropped out of the leading pack, eventually came home in 13th, picking up three valuable points to keep his championship hopes alive. Kiyo still leads with a total of 113 points, followed by Fujiwara in second overall with 112 points. Zamri Baba is now third overall with 100 points followed by Azlan Shah Kamaruzaman who had had lacklustre results in Zhuhai in fourth overall with 76 points.
 
However, on the teams' standings, it is Manual-Tech BEET Kawasaki Racing that is leading with 124 points, followed by MUSASHi Boon Siew Honda Racing in second overall with 123 points and PETRONAS Hong Leong Yamaha Malaysia third with 100 points.