Asia Formula BMW Championship, Autopolis, Japan ARMAAN hits podium with 3rd place

Armaan Ebrahim hits the podium with a brilliant 3rd place in Rd 12 of the Asian Formula BMW Championship in Autopolis,Japan.

The 16 year old Indian sensation had a major setback in the first race when he was knocked out from behind by Championship leader Hamed Al Farhan from Bahrain. Armaan who had qualified 4th for both races had too much of a wheel spin at the start thereby dropping down to 8th place going into the first corner.By lap 4 Armaan made some breathtaking moves and passed Hamed Al Farhan who had qualified third on the grid. Not wanting to accept being passed, Hamed made a wild move from behind and in the process hit Armaan from behind sending the Indian teenagers car into a tail spin therby causing both Armaan and Hamed to drop out of the race.

The team worked extra hard to get Armaan's car fixed in time for Race 2 and knowing that he had the measure of the front runners, Armaan was confident of doing well despite a damaged car.

The track conditions were wet as it had rained quite heavily before the race leaving several puddles and a permanent yellow flag down the main straight and into corner 1 thereby making overtaking very difficult.

However Armaan managed to pass Hamed Al Farhan again and hounded Micael Patrizi from Australia and Salman Al Khalifa right to the finish.But with slippery track conditions and a permanent yellow on corner 1, the Indian youngster did not chance another accident and settled for 3rd place with his team mate Salman Al Khalifa taking his second win of the day.

The time sheets are not out as yet, but going by the Indian's pace one is pretty sure that he will bag the fastest lap of the race.

The first race DNF pretty much puts paid to Armaan's chances of having a shot at the Title and has more or less sealed it for Salman, but the target now for Armaan is to finish the last round in Shanghai in October on a high and be in the top 3 of the Championship.

Armaan though only 16 years old made the trip to Japan alone and managed by himself without the services of his driver coach father, Akbar who had to stay back in India to try and raise the remaining sponsorship for Armaan to complete the BMW Championship.

Armaan now heads back to India to continue his physical training and preparations for the A1 test at the Silverstone circuit in UK on the 19th of September. Armaan's current Primary sponsors are BMW MOTORSPORT and JK TYRES and Co Sponsors are PARX and AMARON

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