Round 12 podium, Weiron Tan first with Rahul Mayer in second and Saeed Bintouq in third
Friday, 15th Mar 2013 – Weiron had shown great promise at the previous event despite his weekend being seriously hampered by fuel problems which had also affected Natasha Seatter’s engine.
The morning qualifying session was notable for two things. Firstly, the qualifying times of five of the drivers were within just 38 hundredths of a second of each other. Secondly, SkyDive Dubai sponsored driver Haytham Sultan was the fastest of that group. Wei Ron Tan put in the quickest lap to gain pole position.
Round 11 was an exciting affair with Seatter and Nick Canal having to start from the second row of the grid behind Tan and Sultan. The ensuing battle for the lead resulted in Seatter outbraking herself and running into the back of fellow Malaysian Rahul Mayer causing a ‘Code 60’ whilst the cars were untangled by the attentive Yas marshals. Both drivers lost a lot of time and set off last to catch the pack. Tan made a very clean re-start to take the lead and victory, which was never in doubt. Haytham Sultan continued his great form by holding second place throughout the race until the last lap and the last corner when fast improving compatriot Saeed Bintouq carried out a controversial manouvre into the last corner to claim second place which instead allowed Nick Canal to grab second and demoted Sultan to fourth. Harsh Rajpal finished in fifth with Mayer and Seatter finishing the race several laps down to avoid losing valuable championship points.
Round 12 saw Seatter start from the back and Weiron Tan on pole from where he demonstrated complete superiority with fastest lap and a victory. But it was the Yas Marina Circuit supported driver Saeed Bintouq who put in the second fastest lap on his way to another podium just 9 hundredths of a second behind second place finisher Rahul Maher. Seatter continued to have a nightmare of a weekend when after starting from the back of the grid, she drove steadily through the pack to catch Mayer at which point she made a typically bold yet perfectly clean pass. This audacious move had a marshal radioing in what he thought was a ‘collision’ which prompted the officials to issue a drive-through penalty to Seatter which ruined her race and perhaps her championship as she was only able to finish in sixth place.
GulfSport Racing’s Barry Hope said “ I think we witnessed the making of several future stars today. Caterham F1 clearly have a very talented driver in Weiron Tan and so its interesting to use his lap times as a benchmark for our local drivers which are surprisingly close. However, I was dismayed to see Natasha handed out a drive-through as in my opinion this rule should only be used as a penalty of last resort due to the fact that the outcome of such a decision cannot be undone”.
