Yuey Tan: It was a difficult podium finish
Carrera Cup race driver, Yuey Tan finished race 1 of the Shanghai GP in a solid 3rd place after his car was damaged in the first corner of the race.
After qualifying 3rd in category, the Singaporean driver was confident of a good result after some good pace earlier in the weekend. However after the start of race 1, contact was made by another competitor that saw the setup of the car once again severely compromised, very much like the opening round of the PCCA earlier last month in Sepang.
“I couldn’t believe my luck!” said the Dorr McElrea driver. “After it happened in Sepang, we had to nurse the car home and now it happens again.”
Tan spent the whole race in a defensive position, holding off spirited challenges from Natasha Seatter and Alif Hamdan.
“It was a very lucky defensive drive today,” continued Tan. “Both Alif and Natasha are great drivers and they made some fantastic moves on me. Though I managed to hold them off till the end with a little bit of luck on the last corner.”
Hamdan made a strong challenge for the last podium position in category, managing to pass Tan on the final corner on the final lap of the race on the outside, however hitting the astro turf outside of the ripple strips and losing pace.
“I think that was the closest finish in the five seasons I’ve been in the PCCA. After Alif went off the circuit ahead, we both powered to the finish line as I crossed it just ahead of him by two hundredths of a second.”
“Alif is a good guy. We actually had a bit of a talk just before the race, agreeing we are at the same pace and we both need as many championship points as possible. So if we were to run to the end nose to bumper, we would give each other enough racing room to both score points. We raced clean and all respect goes out to him. We had a good race.”
“At the end of the race after scruteneering, we checked the car and the left rear had no camber and a lot of toe out. Not an ideal way to drive the car.”
Tan will contest race 2 tomorrow on Sunday afternoon at 1230 Shanghai time, just before the start of the Shanghai Formula 1 race.
