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Grunwell claims the first pole to flag win of the season

James Grunwell claimed his first Pole to Flag win during an incident filled Formula V6 Asia Round 3 race at Sepang International Circuit today. The Thai driver, drove a spectacular race despite making a few small mistakes to keep ahead of the fast charging Armaan Ebrahim.

The race was marred by an incident at the end of lap 2 at the turn 15 hairpin when the third placed driver, Isaiah-Ro Charlez and fourth placed Earl Bamber had a coming together resulting in Charlez having a 360 degrees roll. The Safety Car came out for five laps to clear the car off the track. The Australian driver came out of the car unscathed while Bamber managed to continue with the race.

“At the hairpin coming on to the straight, I was just defending and left a bit of room as I had to make the corner. I don’t know, maybe he just got in too deep or he didn’t have enough room” said a dejected Charlez after the race.

When asked what his chances of competing in Round 4 are, he replied, “the team is hoping to be able to prepare the car for the next race tomorrow”.

Bamber spoke of the incident, “at turn 15, I was on the inside and it got pretty tight in the middle, we touched wheels and he ended up riding my front wheel and rolling over. I feel sorry for him and hopefully he can get out for tomorrow’s race”.

At the restart, Grunwell once again got off to a great start while Ebrahim managed to get close but not quite enough to make a move. The leading duo held on to their positions all the way to the end of the race, but not before Ebrahim made a mistake that caused him to spin into the gravel before rejoining.

“I had a good start. Armaan tried to go around the outside of me and I left my braking a little bit too late so I ran with a flat-spotted tyre, which was kind of my own mistake. I was really struggling through the high-speeds bends, there was a lot of vibration and Armaan was catching me. I was pretty lucky that Armaan went off because I wasn’t driving the best race I’ve ever driven.

“I was really nervous going into the first race from pole. I made a lot of mistakes, I’m not sure whether the track was difficult or I was making it difficult for myself. The first race is done with now, nerves are gone and hopefully I can get another win tomorrow” said Grunwell at the post-race press conference.

It looked like a bitter-sweet moment for Ebrahim when he came in second “The car felt good, the team did a really good job because I could chase James the whole way. Unfortunately when he made the mistake, I didn’t capitalize on it and then I made a mistake. I left my braking a bit too late, I braked about 10meters too late into the corner so I was off into the gravel. Luckily I made it back on to the track, got back to second and got some points”.

Behind them, Bamber and Hafiz Koh were both called in for a drive through penalty for a false start. Bamber was then called in to do another drive through for stopping at the pit when he did his first drive through. The penalties left the New Zealander to finish the race in seventh.

Kevin Chen of Champ Motorsport was the benefactor, claiming third at the end of the race, ahead of the remaining finishers, Australian Mark Williamson, Indonesian driver Robin Tato and Singaporean Hafiz Koh.

Chen credited his third place to luck “I started fifth and for this race I was only maintaining my pace and position because the four guys ahead of me were all in one group. I was pretty much on my own, there was a car behind but it was quite far away. Then the pace car came out because of Charlez’s incident, I saw the car almost flip. I got one place from that and then I saw the drive-through penalty for Earl and that’s how I got third. Basically I was lucky today”.

Round 4 of the Formula V6 Asia continues with the 20-laps Grand Race held on Sunday, 22nd June, at 2.15pm on the 5.54km Sepang International Circuit.

Published: 2008-06-21 00:00:00

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