Last-Lap Drama Gives Fong Round 4 Victory In Zhuhai

From Jaiarajo Letchumanan ZHUHAI, June 4 (Bernama) -- Hong Kong’s Adderly Fong from KLM Racing scored his second Audi R8 LMS Cup victory amidst a dramatic last-lap collision between then-race leader Marchy Lee of Audi Ultra and Audi GQ driver Alex Yoong at the Zhuhai International Circuit. The 22-year-old Fong was lying a distant third before inheriting the lead after Yoong’s attempted overtaking manoeuvre resulted in a heavy contact between the Malaysian former F1 driver and Lee of Hong Kong, while Jeffrey Lee won his second straight Amateur Cup victory and finished second overall, with Yoong third and a distraught Marchy Lee limping home in 13th spot. Audi Driving Dreams driver Daniel Bilski of Hong Kong finished second in the non-professional class on his Audi R8 LMS Cup weekend debut, while the only woman driver in the competition, Zhang Ran of Audi Castrol, stood on the podium for the first time, finishing third in the Amateur Cup. With the win, Fong now leads the drivers classification ahead of Yoong, with Marchy Lee third while Jeffrey Lee continues his lead atop the Amateur Cup leaderboard. Starting from pole, Marchy Lee got away cleanly and quickly began to open up a gap but Fong, who had started second, fell down the order to fourth, with Team Erdos Xinan driver Sun Zheng and Yoong ahead of him. As Marchy Lee pushed, Yoong worked to get by Sun, eventually overtaking the young Chinese driver on the fifth lap before setting his sights on Lee, who, by Lap 7, had nearly a five-second lead. The second half of the race saw Yoong close the gap on Marchy Lee, whose tyres had started to affect his pace, while Jeffrey Lee zeroed in on Fong as the Pauian Archiland J-Fly Racing driver fought for the final podium position. The drama unfolded on the penultimate lap, with Yoong getting by Marchy Lee to take the race lead but seconds later, on Turn 1 of the final lap, Marchy Lee regained the lead. A determined Yoong, however, kept up the fight and on Turn 4, came alongside his rival and the two made contact, and although Yoong went into the gravel, he recovered to finish third. The damage on Marchy Lee’s car meant that the Round 3 winner yesterday could not finish the race, giving Fong the advantage to promote himself to the top of the podium. “This was a fantastic race weekend. We experienced great overtaking manoeuvres and I’m so excited to see such a competitive field. The championship for the Audi R8 LMS Cup is wide open. This will make Rounds 5&6 in Ordos, even more interesting,” Rene Koneberg, Director of Audi Sport Customer Racing in China, told Bernama here on Monday. "At the start, I gave away a couple of opportunities to other drivers but later, put a lot of pressure on Sun and he made a mistake. Luck was on my side but I know Marchy and Alex are strong competitors. I hope to push them as much as possible,” said Fong. Alex Yoong said: "I thought it was a fair incident. Marchy left me room, I went into it and we came together. We had side-to-side contact but a little too much as both cars were damaged." However, a fuming Marchy Lee said: "Maybe, I pushed too hard in the beginning. It was okay, though, until one of the backmarkers spun in front of me and I lost my attention, allowing Alex to make his move. “On T1 of the last lap, Alex made a mistake and I passed him back. On Turn 4, he came on the inside of me, but I was already on the inside, there was no gap for him to pass. I’m quite disappointed.” Round 4 Results: Race 2: 1. Adderly Fong (HKG) KLM Team; 2. Jeffrey Lee (TPE) Paulian Archiland J-Fly Racing Team 3. Alex Yoong (MAS) GQ Team; 4. Wang Jian Wei (CHN) Team Betterlife; 5. Han Han (CHN) Team Zhe Jiang Aotong; 6. Sun Zheng (CHN) Team Erdos Xinan; 7. Sun Chao (CHN) PD Group Team; 8. Daniel Bilski (HKG) Audi Driving Dreams; 9. Zhang Ran (CHN) Audi Castrol; 10. Clifford Chen (TPE) J-Fly Racing Team. -- BERNAMA