Under the blistering hot sun, Earl Bamber, the youngster from New Zealand finished off a perfect weekend after winning yet another race from pole to flag during the Formula V6 Asia Grand Race at the Sentul International Circuit. Bamber took off at the start and immediately started to pull out a gap from the remaining drivers in, he led unchallenged all the way to the chequered flag.
The Pizza Company Team Qi-Meritus driver won in front of hundreds of their local supporters and headed a second one-two finish for the team. Bamber completed the race 15.6 seconds ahead of teammate James Grunwell.
“Its absolutely amazing. We did not have such a good weekend in Sepang, so it really shows that we’ve got a good pace. James is doing a good job and it was just a little bit unfortunate that he did not get the best of starts, because if he had stayed right behind me, it would have probably been a different race. He probably would have pressured me.
“We will see what happens when we go to China. I’m sure he is going to get a lot closer during the next outing because I know he doesn’t like me winning these races, so he is going to be out there to beat me” Bamber said jokingly.
The race was an eventful one filled with trouble for the midfield runners. It all began when Ro Charlez stalled his engine at the start of the warm-up lap. The Australian should have started the race from the back of the grid, but instead retook his grid position for the start. This resulted in a drive through penalty, which he took on lap four.
Charlez did not recover and towards the end suffered from a coil problem on the engine, leaving him to complete the race in seventh.
Up ahead, Recardo Bruins made a great start from fourth to second at the start, followed by James Grunwell, Charlez and Armaan Ebrahim. Grunwell then pushed through to take second from Bruins, also known as Myung Gil Choi in Korea, and tried to play catch up with Bamber.
“I had a really good start for once and I managed to pull a bit alongside Earl on the inside but there wasn’t any room there so I had to back off the throttle. That’s when Recardo came around the outside of me, so he got me going into the first lap.
“Armaan tried the same move on me around the outside, but because there have been more races today, so there was more rubber on the inside, I was able to hold my line. From there I just pushed Recardo and passed him through turn 1” said Grunwell after the race.
Behind him, trouble brewed for Bruins and Ebrahim, who were fighting for fourth place, both drivers suffered from the same fate, having a hydraulic problem that caused them to be stuck in one gear probably caused as a result of a the cars sitting on the grid in the searing heat for an extended opening ceremony. Bruins got caught in sixth gear for the final two laps, whilst Ebrahim was stuck with only fourth gear, ending the race in eighth.
This left a great opportunity for Champ Motorsport driver, Kevin Chen who finished on the podium in third. “I’ve been having a run of bad luck this weekend but at least today was lucky for me. The past two days I have been ill. Today, I started to feel better on the track, I’m still off pace, but I had some pretty good luck”.
Local race hero, Robin Tato ended his race early after spinning on lap 19, coming out of turn 1 following a great battle with the recovering Ro Charlez.
Prepared by Motorsport Asia Ltd
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