2012 Supercup Chinese Grand Prix

**2012 Supercup Chinese Grand Prix**
Race details
2012 Supercup season

Date	March 21th, 2012
Official name	2012 Supercup Chinese Grand Prix
Location	Shanghai International Circuit Shanghai, China
Course	Road course 3.387 mi / 5,451 km
Distance	35 laps, 118.545 mi / 190.785 km
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Rickard Hellsten	Torrent Motorsports
Time	01:39.979
Fastest Lap
Driver	Petter Kaasa	Torrent Motorsports
Time	01:40.387
Podium
First	Petter Kaasa	Torrent Motorsports
Second	Philip Cullen	Halcyon
Third	Alex Cooper	CSG

The 2012 Supercup Chinese Grand Prix - the second race of the season - took place on Shanghai International Circuit near the city of Shanghai on the 21th of March and was won by Petter Kaasa. There were 26 drivers at the event.

Report

Qualifying

Rickard Hellsten managed to take the pole with a 1:39.979 and was the only one who managed to go under the 40's. His teammate Petter Kaasa drove his can to the second place, getting their team Torrent Motorsports on the first row of the grid. David Fidock drove his No Fear Racing car to the 3rd place, being best of the rest after the Torrent guys, and Dave Carr-Smith took the 4th place. Alex Cooper and Philip Cullen took row three. Terence Grech managed to drive his Malta Force car on place 7, and Roy Schroten surprisingly managed to take the 8th spot. Row 5 were taken by Adam Rouse and Scott Woodwiss, who had a bit of a dissapointend session. Boyd Bryson managed to qualify as 11th, and Jason Muscat starting as 12th. Jack Nicholls and Martin O'Connor started as 13th and 14th, with Ric Scott and Erik Tveit behind them. Place 17 was for Scott Bennett, place 18 for Martin Bulgin and Wopke Hoekstra managed to set his car on place 19. Andrejs Pestovs was able to put his car on the 20th place, with Alex Rolls beside him, taking the 21th place. William Tringas started as 22th, and Chris Allen as 23th. The 12th row was for Teemu Toikka (24th) and Chris Williamson (25th). Mal McKee started as 26th respectively. Because Roy Schroten entered the pit, but went out again, the race directors gave him a grid penalty of 5 places for the next race at Abu Dhabi.

Race

At the warm up laps Rickard Hellsten spun his car and had to start from pit lane, putting Petter Kaasa to start as first and David Fidock virtualy 2nd.

It was David who managed to head into turn one as first, followed by Roy Schroten who had a super start. Petter went to the 3rd place, and Philip Cullen went to 4th. Jason Muscat had a great start as well, moving up to 5th. In the back field it was Teemu Toika who lost control of his car, and his teammate William Tringas hit him in the back, causing Teemu to lose his back wing. wopke Hoekstra went wide at turn 6, and Chris Allen spun his car, both losing some time, but they could continue. Then it was Dave Carr-Smith who spun in the long turn before the long back strait, causing him to lose many places and much time.

At the long back strait Roy overtook David and went to the first place. It was the first time he drove as first and could hold it for a couple of laps.

At lap 5 Petter had managed to drive to the back of Roy, and overtook him at strait before turn 1. Philip managed to overtake Roy a lap later. At the same time Rickard Hellsten managed to move up trough the field easely, being the fastest on the track.

At lap 12 Roy had to come in, being one of the only one who had a two-stop strategy. Petter Kaasa still drove first, and had a gap of 10 seconds to Philip. Rickard already drove in the top 10, doing a great job in the Torrent car.

Eventualy it was Petter who managed to finish as first, winning his first GPVWC race. Philip Cullen did a great job, driving his Halcyon car to second. The podium was made by Alex Cooper in the CSG car. Rickard managed to finish as 4th, doing a great job for Torrent Motersports. He showed that he is one of the fastest drivers on the track, and needs to be followed, as he might win the championchip. Adam Rouse did a good job for Hawkeye, and Jason Muscat did a good job finishing 6th. David Fidock had a stable race and managed to finish 7th. Roy Schroten eventualy managed to finish as 8th. A great result for the young Dutchman, scoring his first points of the season for him and his team, Synergetic Motorsports. Terence Grech managed to finish as 9th, and Scott Bennett managed to score the last point, finishing as 10th. Then it ware Jack Nicholls, William Tringas, Chris Williamson and Wopke Hoekstra who filled to spots 11th to 14th. Scott Woodwiss had a dissapointend race, finishing as 15th. Boyd Bryson (16th), Ric Scott (17th), Martin Oconnor (18th), Alex Rolls (19th), Martin Bulgin(20th), Teemu Toikka(21st. Mal McKee, Dave Carr-Smith, Chris Allen and Erik Tveit weren't able to finish the race.

Petter managed to set the fastest time of the race, a 1:40.387