Vernay converts his pole into Race 1 victory
Jean-Karl Vernay converted his pole position into a lights-to-flag victory in Wuhan’s Race 1, the third race win for the Frenchman so far.
Pepe Oriola and Gordon Shedden completed the podium ahead of Yann Ehrlacher and Frédéric Vervisch. After the race, however, Ehrlacher was given a 30-second time penalty for jump-start and dropped to 18th.
All the four Hyundai drivers who are on top of the standings finished out of the points, which meant that Vernay, Vervisch and Esteban Guerrieri - who classified seventh – were able to reduce their gaps.
Vernay took the lead at the start from Oriola, while Denis Dupont and Nathanaël Berthon – third and fourth on the grid – collided and dropped by a few positions.
The safety car was deployed from lap 4 to lap 7 after Tom Coronel crashed into the back of Fabrizio Giovanardi’s cars. When racing resumed, Vernay was able to pull away; Oriola was safe in second position, while Ehrlacher defended his third place from Shedden and Vervisch. Behind them Dupont and Berthon made contact again, Aurélien Comte and Kevin Ceccon benefited from the commotion and moved up to sixth and seventh that became fifth and sixth following Ehrlacher’s penalty.
Most of the positions remained unchanged, except for Shedden who was able steal third from Ehrlacher on lap 12.
Action will resume tomorrow with the Qualifying session for Races 2 and 3 at 9:00am local time (3:00am CET).
