Pasin impresses in GT3 ‘World Cup’ race
Pasin Lathouras raced to an impressive top-10 finish in the inaugural FIA GT World Cup for GT3 cars last week.
The 21-year-old Thai was the youngest driver on the grid and when he crossed the finish line at the end of the 18-lap race in 10th place, he was the only non-professional driver amongst the top-10 finishers.
It was the perfect end to a successful season that saw him win the pro-am class in the 24 Hours of Spa and secure the runner-up position in the International GT Open.
Pasin said: “It’s a great way to end the year. To race here is really special, it’s just such an awesome track and such a tough challenge and this year with it being the new FIA World Cup race there was even more added pressure.”
In Abu Dhabi, Formula One fuels and lubricants rarely make headlines, with data seldom divulged, but Shell say theirs provided 25 percent of Ferrari’s power unit performance improvement this season.
Ferrari failed to win a race last year, the first of the new V6 turbo hybrid units, but have triumphed three times this season with Sebastian Vettel in a marked turnaround for the former champions.
They will end the season as runners-up to Mercedes.
The Anglo-Dutch oil major said in a statement that the performance gain from fuel equated to almost half a second per lap, or an average of 30 seconds over a race distance.
It said five new blends were introduced over the year in an aggressive strategy that was “one of the greatest step changes offered by Shell in the history of the technical partnership with Ferrari.”