Jan 18

Jan 18 Ukyo Sasahara wins as a guest driver as F3 Asia debuts at Yas Marina

Ukyo Sasahara has won Race 7 of the 2020 F3 Asian Championship, followed by Nikita Mazepin and Australian Jack Doohan.

Ukyo Sasahara, the 2019 F3 Asia champion, wasted no time on Friday evening at Yas Marina Circuit, pulling away from pole position and building his lead for the entire race.

The action was more intense further back in the field, with Nikita Mazepin up from sixth to fourth, and Jack Doohan up to second around the outside.

Doohan, sure that the move would be penalised, gave the position back to the Dutchman, and dropped down to fifth as the chasing pack capitalised on his sportsmanship.

Sasahara now held a five-second lead, while Joey Alders led an eight-car-train for second place. As the pack began to split apart, Mazepin was the first to move on Alders, storming past the wide-running Dutchman who dropped to fifth.

Jack Doohan was on a recovery drive, passing Pietro Fittipaldi for third, while Mazepin worked hard to wear down Sasahara’s lead.

The race was over too soon, with Sasahara leading Mazepin and Doohan over the line, followed by Joey Alders.

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With Sasahara as a guest driver for the weekend, Mazepin was awarded the full 25 championship points, and all driver saw their points reward increase by one position.

Sasahara said “I was struggling at the start in the last two meetings and finally we could make a good getaway.”

“The team has done a fantastic job. The last two meetings we struggled a lot and finally we come back to [a win]. I tried to save the tires for the next two races, but then I started to struggle a little bit, so I had to try to make no mistakes which kind of helped [Nikita] in the last few laps.”

Jack Doohan said “[Giving the place back amongst a packed field] wasn’t ideal. I got back into the rhythm and tried to keep my cool, pick them off one by one. I got past my team mate and then the gap to Nikita was a bit too big to close, so I just tried to stay in the same position.”

Fellow Australian Tommy Smith finished in P12.