Michael Shin took his third win of the season in an entertaining Race 1 today at the Red Bull Ring. On a sunny late summer afternoon, the Korean of Motopark took the command of operations in turn 4 and controlled the rest of the race, crossing the line with a 7-second advantage on teammate Joss Garfias. The Mexican resisted the fierce attack of championship leader Tymk Kucharczyk (BVM Racing) in the closing laps.
Shin was clearly happy at the end of the race: “It’s a win that culminates the good work done with the team throughout the sessions. My start wasn’t that good, but once I could take the lead, things went smoothly.”
Today’s results further open the title fight, as Shin is now only eight points behind Kucharczyk, with Motopark’s Yevan David (today sixth) 25 points behind the leader and Garfias 35 points off.
Kucharczyk had signed his fifth pole of the season in qualifying, but he was penalized three grid positions for infringing the track test ban during the summer.
Shin and David were in pole, but it was Diego de la Torre taking a sensational start from row 2 and being the first leader ahead of Shin, David, Garfias, Kucharczyk, Stack, and Pearson. Still, the Mexican could not hold the advantage for more than three corners.
Shin led the initial phases ahead of Garfias, de la Torre, Kucharczyk, Pearson, Stack, Viisoreanu and David, who paid with an off-track an attempt of overtaking. The race then saw Kucharczyk trying to climb positions. The Pole first had to fight with de la Torre, whom he passed for third in lap 12, then he had to catch Garfias, with who he fought hard, exchanging positions a couple of times but not prevailing at the end. De la Torre was fourth ahead of an excellent Everett Stack, who won among the rookies, David and Pearson.
Alessandro Famularo (BVM) was eighth and the best of the debuting drivers, ahead of Luca Viisoreanu (Motopark) and Francisco Soldavini (Nielsen Motorsport), while Cedi Baptista (Nielsen) retired on lap 3. Paolo Brajnik (NV Racing) finished right out of the points, securing again the Gold Cup.