Thaindian News

Kuala Lumpur, May 26 (IANS) Reigning team champions Eurointernational achieved a 1-2 finish in the opening rounds of the JK Racing Asia Series here Saturday.

Nabil Jeffri repeated his feat of the 2011 season by claiming the first win, this time for Eurointernational while teammate, Aston Hare took Round 2 after a last turn incident involving the two lead cars.

In Round 1, Malaysian Jeffri won from pole and was not challenged throughout the race. He maintained a good pace throughout the 10-lap race to keep closest rival, Meritus GP driver, Afiq Ikhwan Yazid, behind him all the way to the chequered flag.

Eurointernational rookie driver Hare finished third after defending his position from two battling Malaysians, Irfan Ilyas and Akash Nandy.

In Round 2, Yazid led the race from pole with a slight gap on Jeffri, who was then running in second. Jeffri closed the gap towards the end of the race when on the last turn of the last lap, they made contact. Both drivers were stuck in the middle of the track with Yazid’s car stalling ending his race. Jeffri managed to rejoin to finish in sixth.

The incident left Hare, who was running in third throughout the race to claim his first win, putting him at the head of the Championship points table on his first ever race weekend.

Indian drivers, Raj Bharath and Vishnu Prasad were still managing to improve their pace. Bharath improved his time and was able to catch up to the mid pack halfway through Round 2.

Bharath caught up to ninth placed Calvin Seibl and as he made his move to overtake, there was a yellow flag and the Indian was given a 30-second penalty for overtaking under yellow.

“I started 11th and then I was up to 10th and then in the last lap at the last corner, I moved up to ninth but there was a yellow flag, so I got a 30-seconds penalty,” said Bharath.

The Series continues Sunday with Rounds 3 and Round 4.