Date:22/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/22/stories/2008112256401600.htm

Sport - Sports : General

Armaan impresses

Chennai: Armaan Ebrahim showed a glimpse of his promise with a solid drive for A1 Team India to finish third with a fastest lap of 1:52.739 in the first rookie practice session on Friday at Sepang, Malaysia, the venue for round three of this season’s A1GP World Cup.

This was Armaan’s first experience behind the wheel of the new ‘Powered by Ferrari’ A1 car.

The heat and humidity at Sepang took its toll on Armaan’s second practice session which saw his engine temperature rise sharply, forcing him into the pits for precautionary technical checks.

Armaan ended the second session in seventh place. Team Great Britain’s Danny Watts and Team France’s Nicolas Prost topped the first and second rookie sessions respectively.

Memorable day

It was a memorable day for Watts, who also finished the lead drivers’ practice session in first place.

Team India’s Narain Karthikeyan finished an impressive third, with his quickest lap timed at 1:50.187, a tenth of a second off Switzerland’s Neel Jani in second place.

Speaking post-practice, Armaan said, “I had been looking forward to the rookie session for a long time and was quite confident since I was familiar with the Sepang track… I think we had a successful session and I have learnt a lot about the car’s set-up, which will help the team’s performance in the qualifying session tomorrow.”

Commenting on Armaan’s performance, Team Principal Piers Hunnisett said, “We wanted to give him as much track time as possible. The fact that Armaan has a lot of experience in Sepang, where he has raced in several series earlier, helped boost his confidence; this was the first time he drove the new ‘Powered by Ferrari’ car. He gave an impressive performance even though he hadn’t driven in quite a while.”