Another sixth for Armaan at Formula 2 Championship

BRNO - In a repeat performance, 20-year-old Armaan Ebrahim from India finished sixth in Race 2 of the Formula 2 Championship here Sunday.

The Chennai-based Armaan, driving for the JK Racing team, was sixth in the first race Saturday after starting 19th on the grid and he came up with yet another stunning drive Sunday, moving up from 17th to six out of 25 cars.

The closeness of competition was evident Sunday morning when Armaan qualified 17th, but less than a second off the pole position.

In the 30-minute session, Armaan, sponsored by JK Tyre, Amaron, Yuvraj Sports Foundation and Red Rooster Racing, first went out on old tyres to get into the rhythm. After changing to new tyres, Armaan’s first timed lap was hampered by a red flag as soon as he went out.

On resumption of the session, Armaan’s first timed lap was a one min 48.8 secs (pole time was a 1:48.008) and when on his second flying lap which was apparently much quicker than his previous lap, he got caught up with traffic and immediately after that, there was another crash, thus bringing out the red flag which ended the session.

On Saturday Armaan had moved to sixth slot after starting 19th and he repeated the feat Sunday. This time round, there was a crash in the first corner that took out three cars. On the exit of first corner, Armaan used his boost to good effect and out-dragged one more car and then made a good move on Red Bull driver, Bortolotti, to keep moving up the ladder.

By the end of lap two, Armaan was eight and then the safety car came out for three laps. On resuming the race, Armaan made another three very good moves to slot into sixth behind GP2 driver Milos Pavlovic and from then on it was a tough fight to the chequered flag, with Armaan finishing sixth.

“This was too good to be true. I did not want to try to pass on the outside again as it’s a move that will not work every time. I capitalized on the first corner crash and then used my boost at the right time to pass a few cars in front of me,” said Armaan.

“The passing of Bortolotti, the Red Bull driver, gave me a renewed confidence and I was then able to really race wheel to wheel and make some good moves with god’s grace,” he said.