GT Asia Series - Liu and Rizzo take the new Ferrari 488 to victory in Thailand

Maranello, 16 June 2016 - Ferrari dominated Race-2 of Round 2 of the GT Asia Series thanks to Anthony Liu Xu and Davide Rizzo that claimed an emotional victory in Thailand. At the start of the fourth round of the championship fortunately predicted rain didn’t arrive even if humidty was up well over where it had been during the opening race, making conditions a little more challenging for the drivers.   Close battle. By virtue of setting the pole time in Saturday’s second qualifier, Liu led the field away with the FFF Racing Team Lamborghini in close pursuit with Amici driving. Behind them though chaos ensued in turn one, with an accident slowing the entire group. Amici knew that his only chance to attack the Ferrari would be early in the race, so he drew alongside Liu on the run down to turn two, and tried to stick with him through the 180-degree corner, but the power of the new twin-turbo 488 was too good, Liu getting away from the Lamborghini as he put his head down and charged. By lap three he was up by almost two seconds.   The perfect race. Some minutes later Liu punched out a 1:35.400 to open up an eight second lead ahead of the compulsory stop. After six laps behind the Safety Car there was a very interesting scenario ahead of the restart. Rizzo led the field away, from Liberati in the Lamborghini, Tappy in the #9 Bentley and the super-impressive #98 GruppeM Racing Porsche after a spectacular opening stint by super-sub George Richardson put Tim Sugden right in the box seat. Carlo Van Dam (Ferrari by Singha Motorsport) was next in line. On the restart it was game on, with Rizzo charging immediately maintaining the gap at just under a second.   Next stop. From Thailand, the GT Asia Series turns its focus to Japan, with back-to-back rounds, starting from Okayama on the first weekend in July, before a return to the iconic Fuji Speedway two weeks later.