After demolishing most of the opposition in qualifying, it’s Maxwell who starts on pole for Downton for the Chinese eV-Prix, alongside Jaguar’s Hutchinson and ahead of Taylor. Elsewhere championship leader McLaughlin starts 18th in what is set to be a dramatic race as several look to recover from poor qualifying positions. With another very cool day in store for us here in Shanghai, most drivers have opted for the soft tyre, but not quite everyone – out of place Cesar has gone for mediums, along with Garcia, Haugland and Alaniz. Fusion and Highwind have gone very left field meanwhile, with Thunder and Ellington on the hards.
As the lights went out, it was a good start from Hutchinson, but Maxwell swooped over to cover him off, allowing Taylor to dance around the outside of him teammate through turn 1. Einarsson followed the Brit through, but it was an awful start for Thunder, as she initially dropped 3 places. On the flip side, Hudson got off the line beautifully and was up to 8th, before picking off Zvironas, van Snelheid and Thunder (who dropped to 11th) in the next 2 laps. Garcia and Cesar both had poor starts on the mediums as well, while McLaughlin made up 4 places over the first 3 laps. Maxwell kept his opponents at arm’s length at the start, but Taylor began to reel him in – the latter got the Downton onto the defensive at turn 1 on lap 4 and then pulled off the switchback to perfection to take the lead of the race. Hudson barged past Hutchinson at turn 5 to take 4th and the Austrian slipped back at an alarming rate – while van Snelheid took 5th off Zvironas and Klien made up another place apart from Hutchinson by overtaking Zozulya. McLaughlin picked up another two places, but Cesar (along with Thunder) continued to fall back and neither Porsche made much impact. Ostberg certainly made an impact on lap 8 though, as went off at turn 7 and hit Ellington as he re-joined, destroying both cars’ suspension. This occurred just after Einarsson moved into 2nd after slipstreaming past Maxwell – a lap later, all soft tyred runners were into the pits. The top 3 retained their positions, but Downton, despite double stacking, got Zozulya out so quickly, he made up 5 places up to 5th, while Zvironas jumped Klien thanks to a slight faster pit stop. Thunder, Cesar and Garica (the former now ahead of the latter) were now up to 12th, 13th and 14th. Einarsson looked to fire up his new tyres the quickest and he was all over Taylor as they approached, but it still took a fantastic late move into the hairpin to grab the lead on lap 12. The Zvironas – Klien – van Snelheid battle continued as the former two surprised the Arrow with the Fusion taking him on the inside and the Highwind taking him on the outside simultaneously at turn 10. Kasami demoted Hutchinson to 10th, and on lap 14 the medium runners pitted – dropping Cesar and Garcia well down, while Haugland and Alaniz now at the back. There was a collective sigh from the audience a lap later as Maxwell slowed on the back straight – an electrical issue put an end to his race, a massive blow to Downton. This opened the way for Hudson and Zozulya to close on Taylor – both rapidly passing him on lap 16. This led to Renault giving Einarsson a hurry up as he tried to pull away from his rivals. Klien and Zvironas had a entertaining battle that saw the Austrian move up to 5th while Yoshida finally moved Maserati into the points with a pair of overtakes on Hutchinson and Kasami. The race was turned on its head on lap 18 though – Einarsson went wide at the final corner, spun off and stalled. Before he could get going again, Yoshida spun as well and collected the Renault – leaving a mess at the final corner and bringing out the safety car, during which Zhao parked on the side of the road with brake issues. It was a sad end to a great drive from Einarsson, but it threw a spanner in the works as all soft runners had to wait behind the safety car before completing their second and final pit stops – promoting Thunder to 1st, ahead of Cesar, Garica, Haugland and Alaniz. Next came Hudson and Zozulya, but on fresh softs, ahead of Taylor, Klien, van Snelheid and Zvironas, also on fresh softs. The race restarted with 7 laps to go, and everything in the air. In the next 3 laps, Hudson and Zozulya were on another level. They used their better traction to storm past Haugland and Alaniz, took Garcia and Thunder a lap later and then, with 4 laps left, got Cesar, as Zozulya pulled off a fantastic double move to take the lead from Hudson as well. Thunder had slipped behind Garcia and Taylor as well, van Snelheid had sneaked past Klien and Alaniz was slipping down like a stone while Haugland desperately tried to hold onto a top 10 finish. While Thunder dropped out of the top 10, her hard tyres shot now, Klien nipped past van Snelheid and then took Taylor around the outside to place 5th, trying to get Garcia. Zvironas also passed van Snelheid, but with 2 laps left he focus was back on the front as Hudson tried his hardest to pass Zozulya – until the cameras turned to Garcia who’s tyre agonisingly blew on the penultimate lap while 4th. It then flipped back to the front as Hudson – on the last lap – threw his car up the inside of Zozulya at turn 5 and take the lead to the delight of the Lada garage. Cesar had done his best to hold onto 3rd until now, but his tyres hit a cliff on the last lap and Klien, Taylor and Zvironas swept pass him. But up front, after a fantastic podium in Australia, it was a fantastic win for Hudson as he beat Zozulya to the flag, followed by Klien who took Highwind’s maiden podium. Taylor took 4th while Zvironas delivered Fusion their first points in eV. 6th was still a very impressive comeback from Cesar, albeit aided by the safety car, ahead of van Snelheid and McLaughlin – who picked up 6 places in the last few laps to salvage some points. Kasami won out his race long battle with Hutchinson to get K8ley their first 2 points while Haugland just hung on to 10th – also BMW’s first point of the year.
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