Tan survives T1 impact!

Singaporean race driver, Yuey Tan opened his 2013 account with the first round of the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia over the weekend. 

The opening round was held as a support race for the Formula One World Championships, on the Sepang International Circuit. This was also the first weekend that Tan and ex-Formula One race engineer, Minal Kanagasundaram, worked together.

"Minal has been fantastic so far for us," said Tan. "We have been working on new ways to bring the driver and the car closer together. This can only be good for outright speed in races to come!"

The first practice session saw Tan come out and put some laps in, shaking down the car as it was repaired between testing and the opening race. Qualifying also saw the driver car package warm up into speed, eventually qualifying 4th in category.

"Qualifying went well for us," Tan continued. Everything happened just as we planned though we could've gone quicker. We lost at least 3 tenths in the middle sector so who knows.:

The feature race didn't quite go according to plan for the Singaporean. After a fantastic start making up several positions, impact was made at Nexus Racing's Adrian Da Silva charged into T1 and T2, making impact with Tan and hitting the front wheel of the car.

"Immediately after Adrian made contact with us, I knew it was going to be a long afternoon. The car couldn't brake, hold corner speed or accelerate correctly which was a bit of a disappointment. We just had to nurse the car home and drive it at 80% which was frustrating at best. There was a lot of movement in the corners which disallowed me to get on the throttle."

Although the setup was compromised, Tan managed to make up a few spots finishing 4th in category, right back where he started.

"It was a tough race but a good experience. Racing at something other than your own personal limit seems a little bit strange, but we got the points and that is what counts!"

Tan currently sits 4th in the class B standings, and will be trying to improve this at the Shanghai Formula 1 GP Weekend, APril 12-14.