Indian racing sensation, 18 years old Armaan Ebrahim from Chennai, India, emerged as the grand winner of the Formula Renault V6 Asia race in Zuhai, China.

Armaan put in a superlative performance by winning against all odds. Starting 3rd on the grid for the Grand race consisting of 20 laps, Armaan shot into the lead into the 1st corner and never looked back from then on. The race was closely contested by the 2nd to 5th placed drivers. However Armaan gave them no chance to have even a sniff at him and by lap 4, he had opened up a 3 second lead and by lap 10 he opened up a 6 second lead and from there on just settled into a rhythm to do consistent lap times to finally take the chequered flag with more than 6 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 2 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 TARA DTM. 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 Armaan as he was quickest in the 1st session and 2nd quickest in the final session. In qualifying, Armaan clocked the fastest time in the 1st qualifying session. However, in the 2nd qualifying session, he could not find the same grip level in the 2nd set of new tyres as he had found in the 1st set and finally finished 4th with Yoshimoto qualifying on pole.

With 3 Team Meritius drivers in front of him, Armaan had a tough sprint race ahead of him. Armaan made a good start and passed Hermanto into the 1st 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 astutely, Hermanto tried to creep in from behind. Armaan finally settled for a well earned 3rd place in the sprint race.

Commented Armaan: “The Grand race was very important for me to do well as I was very keen on matching the pace of the very experienced Yoshimoto. The Grand Race 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 2 tenths of each other for the entire race. I pushed initially and then maintained a steady pace to take a comfortable win.

I had a great car for the race and my utmost thanks to the entire team for working so closely with me for the full year and giving me all the support that was required. Last but not the least, I would like to thank my sponsors, JK Tyres, Speed, Amaron, Elf and Anand Cine, without whom, I would not have been able to race.”

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