ANOTHER POINTS FINISH HO-PIN TUNG IN HOT MALAYSIAN A1GP-RACE
2008-11-23
Team China driver Ho-Pin Tung finished in the points again in Sunday’s feature race at the Malaysian circuit of Sepang. At the seasons’ opener, last month at the Zandvoort track he claimed ninth place, which result he repeated in this weekends’ third edition of the A1GP-Championship. A better result was prevented by a bad working set of tyres, after the first pit stop. Ho-Pin Tung lost in the second stint a lot of time because of the bad performing tyres. After the second stop and with fresh tyres again he had a good racing pace. But then lack of fuel pressure made it impossible to fight and to overtake. At the straights he was some 40 km/h slower then the rest due to the under performing engine. In the ultimate lap he could not avoid letting pass Team Netherlands driver Jeroen Bleekemolen and giving him his eighth position. The Sprintrace the young Chinese hero finished after a solid race 10th, just outside the championship points.
‘It is a shame,’ Ho-Pin Tung reports immediately after the race, ‘a fifth place could have been possible.’ He describes his good start where he managed to avoid colliding cars left and right from him. ‘The first stint went fine, with good lap times and good fights. The team did a very quick first pit stop, but my new tyres did not work at all. I lost much time as well as positions and it was difficult to control the car. At this second set of tyres I had to brake 15 meters earlier at some corners than I did on the first set. After the second stop and fresh tyres I was fast again and I could fight my way up. But I found myself stuck behind Brasil when my engine lost power. At the straights I lost some 40km/h of my top speed! Problems with the fuel pressure, there is nothing you can about that.’
