Published: 2008-07-20

Earl Bamber claimed his second victory of the season from pole to climb on the top step of the podium for Round 5 of the Formula V6 Asia Series. Bamber completed the 15-lap race in 21:09.226, ahead of teammate James Grunwell and fierce rival Armaan Ebrahim who could only mange third at the Sentul International Circuit.

The youngster and his teammate completed the first one-two finish for their team, The Pizza Company Team Qi-Meritus. ìThe start was quite difficult today, they changed the starting line which gave us more of a run into turn one. I actually did not get the best of starts, I had the limiter and James got right behind me, it was pretty tight into turn one but I managed to get through there cleanly. I was lucky I had no one around me so I could just set a good pace.

ìThe team has done a fantastic job today with the car and hopefully it can be the same tomorrow for the feature race and I hope to get a good start again like today. I just have to thank everyone that got the car running the way it did todayî said Bamber at the Post Race Press Conference.

He continued, ìThe circuit was rubbering up, so we got some really good grip towards the end of yesterday, but unfortunately with the rain last night it kind of washed all the grip away so it was slippery this morning in qualifying, but this afternoon for the race there was a lot more rubber down again. Hopefully tomorrow we can see some even quicker timesî.

At the start, Bamber executed the rolling start cleanly but all eyes were on Ebrahim who started in fourth. The 19-year old Indian driver, known for his brilliant rolling starts, overtook the cars of Grunwell and Recardo Bruins on the opening lap. Ebrahim then maintained second until Grunwell caught up to him. The young British-Thai driver kept on closing the gap until lap 12 when he made a move on Ebrahim to claim second.

ìI dropped down to fourth at the start because going around I got tucked up behind Earl and Armaan got in my tow so I had to go to the inside to block him down in turn three and there was just no grip down there. I was kicking up a plume of dust behind me when I looked in my mirror and when I tried to hit the brakes there was nothing there.

ìArmaan managed to get around the outside of me and the same thing really into the next corner, Recardo passed me around the outside and there was no rubber down where I was trying to block. So maybe next time I wont block and just stick on the rubber. In the end, it was a good race, we showed our pace. Although I got down to fourth, Recardo went off and I managed to catch back up with Armaan and pass him into turn one.

ìI would just like to thank my sponsors and everyone, we have got a lot of people here cheering us on so it is quite motivating and I look forward to tomorrowís race and hopefully go one betterî concluded Grunwell.

Ebrahim looked a little disappointed during the Press Conference on his lost third but praised his team for a job well done. ìIt was unfortunate but we had a great pace. I couldnít catch Earl but I thought I could just keep some consistent laps to finish second to get some points but James had much more pace than me. I was also struggling a little bit with the car, I had too much oversteer but I had a good start and got as many points as I could and I improved one place from where I started.

ìTomorrow we have a really long race, 28 laps, so we will need consistency and I am confident of a good start, the team and I know what to do. The team has always given me a good car for the races and I am really looking forward for tomorrowî ended Ebrahim.

After having had two race start incidents, Australian driver Ro Charlez looked nervous for the rolling start and seemed to lift off for a moment but as the race progressed, so did his confidence and he began to pick up the pace slightly to finish fifth.

Hafiz Koh got boxed in at the start leaving him to lose two spots but slowly the Singaporean climbed back up the pack to finish the race in a commendable sixth. Champ Motorsportís Kevin Chen came in seventh ahead of TaraDTMís Mark Williamson and E-Rain Racingís Robin Tato in eighth and ninth respectively.

The Formula V6 Asia Round 6 continues Sunday, 20 July 2008 at 3.10pm at Sentul International Circuit in Indonesia.

Published: 2008-07-20