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Armaan finishes 9th in Indonesia
17th Feb 2008, Indonesia: The round 2 of the maiden GP2 Asia Series was held in the Sentul Circuit, Indonesia on the 16th & 17th Feb 2008. Starting from 16th in terribly wet conditions, Armaan moved steadily up the order. The race started behind the safety car as the track was very wet with heavy rain blistering down the track. After 4 laps the safety car pulled in and the first corner was really tight.
All cars passed thru safely and within a few laps Armaan had moved up to 13th . An accident behind brought the safety car out for a few laps which closed all the cars in again. When the safety car pulled in Armaan made a clean start and held his position for a few laps and then upped his pace to move into 10th place.
Another accident up front brought the safety car out for a couple of laps which again allowed all the cars behind to close the gap again. When the safety car pulled into the pits again, Armaan held his nerve and made a clean start again and by the next lap was in 9th place. With huge splashes of water from the cars in front it was almost impossible for Armaan to get a clear view of the track in front of him. However, the 18 year old youngster from Chennai who is by far the youngest driver on the grid, drove really well and put in some consistent laps to finish ahead of his team mate, Diego Nunes.
Armaan @ IndonesiaCommented Armaan : It was a very difficult start for me and my bad luck was really getting to me. In the half an hour practice on Saturday, we were in the top 8 on a wet track, which was really good.The team pulled me into the pits in order to save the tyres and at the end of the session, the track dried out which made all the other cars out on track go quicker. This did not worry us as we knew we had a good pace in the wet.
In qualifying, we started off reall well and I was in 8th place before the red flag came out due to an accident. The session was stopped for about ten minutes and it started to rain again. When the session restarted, I misjudged the track conditions for the first few laps as I thought it would be a lot wetter than it actually was. When I started to push again, a stone flew into my radiator, puncturing it and thereby causing the car to overheat. I had to pull into the pits and missed the crucial part of the qualifying session when the track had begun to dry and because of this everyone went quicker while I was in the pits thereby placing me 21st on the grid for the 1st race.
At the start of the 1st race, the safety car came out on the 2nd lap due to an accident and we pulled into the pits to make the mandatory tyre change, which was what 75% of the cars did. Unfortunately I stalled the car while waiting for my tyre change as my team mate Diego was ahead of me and the team had to finish his tyre change first. This put me back a few places. However after the safety car pulled out, I was upto speed as the track was getting quite dry and we were on slicks. But all of a sudden the temperature alarm went off again and to my dismay, I found that the overheating problem I had in qualifying had not been solved and I then had to pull out of the race in order to save the engine.
Thus after a horrifying Saturday, to finish in the Top 10 in only my second race is a fantastic feeling. The team did a fantastic job overnight in making sure they got rid of the heating problems and I would like to thank all of them for their unstinted support.
I am still getting used to the car and with some more track time, I am quite confident I can be right up there with the best drivers in the world below F1. I now look forward to Sepang next month, a track that I am very familiar with and a track where I have won many races in the Formula BMW and the Formula Renault V6. I would like to thank my sponsors : JK Tyres, Speed, Amaron and Elf for supporting me.
Commented David Price : It was a really good drive from young Armaan who had a testing time in qualifying and the 1st race with overheating problems. He put his head down and drove a really good race in very trying conditions. We are all very confident that he will keep getting better and better as he spends more time in the car. To have an 18 year old finishing in the top 10 in only his second race is exemplary.
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Courtesy : www.indmotorsport.com
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