The FIA GT “World Cup” final that brought the best of sportscar racing together for a dramatic end of season showdown turned out to be one of the strangest – and shortest – races in motorsport history, and that’s even accounting for the unique history of Macau.
In the end the ‘World Cup Final’ race was stopped after just 4 laps – and that amazingly included two starts and two red flags – so for Pasin Lathouras after he had made it through the knockout stages and into the final there was no opportunity to push, it was a case of reaching the checkered flag and notching up another finish at Macau, itself quite an achievement on what is one of the world’s most iconic and demanding racetracks.
It had all started on the track back on Thursday lunchtime with the first Free Practice session as the second edition of the FIA World Cup – an end of season showcase that brought the top sportscar stars together and a quartet of factory teams, Audi, Porsche, Mercedes and Lamborghini – got underway.
Pasin was driving a Ferrari 488 GT3 for AF Corse as he stepped back into the cockpit following a break of two months since his last race, the closing round of the Blancpain GT Endurance Cup 2016 at the Nürburgring back in September.
This was Pasin’s fourth consecutive year racing a ‘GT’ sportscar at the Macau Grand Prix and his second in the FIA GT World Cup. The first Free Practice session went very well as the 22-year-old Thai driver got to grips with the Ferrari 488 GT3 around the famous streets of the Guia Circuit for the first time and it was the same story in the second session on Thursday morning.
However the carefully laid out plan went out of the window during the afternoon’s qualifying session when Pasin had an incident at the Mandarin corner resulting in the rear of the car clipping the barriers. That eliminated him from the qualifying session less than a third of the way in although by that point he had posted a solid banker time that was good enough for P15 on the grid.
The team fettled the car and everyone was ready for the Qualification Race, although with passing very difficult – if not impossible – here it would be pretty much a case of digging in and waiting to see what would play out around him. Pasin survived a tough moment at the start when a rival car cut him up – an incident that could have ended his race immediately. It compromised Pasin’s race but he was successfully able to keep track position. The Safety Car came out on that first lap, went back in on the fifth lap, came back out just a lap later and went back in on the ninth lap leaving merely three laps to the finish so there wasn’t any opportunity for anyone to make meaningful changes to the leaderboard.
Pasin was able to bring the car to the finishline safety, usefully pick up a position, and that meant he would grab a seventh row grid slot for the final race on Sunday as the ‘Qualification Race’ decided the grid for Sunday’s big race.
The ‘World Cup Final 2016’ turned out to be one of the most unusual races in living memory. There were just four laps in total, a rolling start that saw the race red flagged on the opening lap, then a lengthy delay before the race was restarted and again on the restart lap the race was red flagged. This time, due to concerns about light conditions (the GT race had already late thanks to incidents that occurred during the preceding touring car race pushing the programme back), there would be no third rolling start and the results were declared. In fact the winner finished the race with the car on the roof having dramatically flipped over and slid along the track at high speed upside down while lying in second place on the road – and that really just about summed up this year’s edition.
For Pasin there was simply nothing he could do during a race that didn’t even see even one full racing lap. He enjoyed a good start and again performed superbly on the restart, keeping track position and avoiding incidents, but he would finish where he started in P14, having survived through a long tough week on this track to record a fighting finish. This year’s FIA GT World Cup will certainly go down as a historical novelty.
NaRaYa, LaLaMa by NaRaYa, NaRa, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Sports Authority of Thailand and XYZ supported Pasin in the FIA GT World Cup.
Pasin Lathouras “It was good to be back at Macau, that’s for sure, it’s such an experience to be able to race on this track. We made a good start to the week in practice and looked to be in good shape but matters really conspired against us and in the end there wasn’t really a race, just two rolling starts, and so there was nothing we could do to try to fight back from our earlier setback and aim for a strong finish. It really was an odd event I have never seen anything like it and I think everyone already will be thinking about next year’s event. The team did a great job all week, they worked really hard and I would like to thank all the supporters and sponsors.”