Sentul : Indonesia : July 22, 2007

Armaan Ebrahim from Chennai overcame extreme conditions to take the chequred flag in the 28 laps Grand Race in Round 3 (Championship Race 6) of the Formula Renault V6 Asia Championship in Sentul, Indonesia.

Armaan Ebrahim

The warm up session this morning also did not go well for Armaan as handling problems persisted. However Armaan’s engineer, Patrick Roberts and his team put their heads down and made some changes to the car’s suspension, giving Armaan the confidence that the car will be good for the race.

Starting 2nd on the grid, based on his 2nd place in yesterday’s sprint race, Armaan made a superb start and shot past pole sitter Aaron Lim into the 1st corner. 3 laps later, James Winslow from Britain passed Aaron Lim and was matching Armaan’s lap times every lap. The gap between Armaan and James was just 2 seconds. This is how it remained for the entire 28 laps.

But what the team did not know till well past the middle of the race was that right from lap 2, Armaan had gearbox problems and every lap the gears would not fall properly. By lap 15 the clutch started to slip thereby slowing the car down a bit on the straight. Armaan was on the radio with his engineers reporting the problem, but there was little much the team could do, but pray.

Armaan kept his concentration levels high and drove with the problems without letting it affect his composure. Armaan took the chequered flag after 28 laps off close racing with James Winslow finishing 2nd just 2 seconds behind Armaan.

Armaan now leads the championship by 17 points.

Commented Armaan: I don’t know what to say. I just have to thank the Almighty again and again. Every lap I thought the gearbox was gonna break. I just kept praying and also kept concentrating hard. I knew that despite the loss of time in the gearshifts, I had to keep my momentum through the corners and maintain the gap. It paid off. I am really thankful to the whole team, Pady, Fabien, Fred and Julian. A fantastic job. I’m just thrilled and am now looking forward to come back to India and keep my focus with my physical training and some karting.

A big thanks to my sponsors, JK Tyres, Speed, Amaron, Elf and Anand Cine.

Commented Team Manager Fabien Fior: This had been a very good weekend for the team, and thanks to Armaan’s superb drive and a good teamwork, we walk away with a second and first, taking the lead of the driver championship. It’s up to us now to maintain it to the end.

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