Armaan Blasts His Way to a superb Win in Zuhai, China

Zuhai, China, Nov 4 (UNI) Indian teenager Armaan Ebrahim put in a superlative performance to emerge as the grand winner of the Formula Renault V6 Asia race here.

18-year old Armaan won against all odds. Starting third on the grid for the Grand race consisting of 20 laps, the Indian shot into the lead into the first corner and never looked back from then on. The race was closely contested between the second to the fifth placed drivers.

However Armaan gave them no chance to have even a sniff at him and by lap 4, he had opened up a three second lead and by lap 10 he opened up a six second lead and from there on just settled into a rythym to do consistent lap times to finally take the chequered flag with more than six seconds to spare.

The win was even more credible for Armaan as he beat Japanese driver H Yoshimoto who has driven in the GP2 European championship for two years and Setria Hermanto, the Indonesian A1 GP driver who were both drafted in by Team Meritius to protect their lead driver James Winslow and block Armaan from Team TARADTM.While this below the belt strategy worked in the sprint race wherein Armaan came 3rd behind James Winslow ( UK ) and Yoshimoto ( Japan ), it did not pay off in the Grand race.

The official practice went well for the Indian as he was quickest in the first session and second quickest in the final session. In qualifying, he clocked the fastest time in the first qualifying session. However, in the second qualifying session, he could not find the same grip level in the second set of new tyres as he had found in the 1st set and finally finished fourth with Yoshimoto qualifying on pole.

With three Team Meritius drivers in front of him, Armaan had a tough sprint race ahead of him. Armaan made a good start and passed Hemanto into the first corner and started to hound James Winslow. However, this proved to be difficult as every time he made a move on James, who was defending astoutely, Hermanto tried to creep in from behind . Armaan finally settled for a well earned third place in the sprint race.

After the win Armaan: said " I was very keen on matching the pace of the very experienced Hoshimoto. It was just perfect! I got a great start and made it to the lead with keeping my complete focus on lap time consistency. That helped me to achieve all my lap times within two tenths of each other for the entire race. I pushed initially and then maintained a steady pace to take a comfortable win.

UNI