Sepang, One Second Separates Top Eight in JK Racing Asia Series Qualifying

It was a very close Qualifying session for the first outing of the JK Racing Asia Series with only one second separating the top eight. . The debut of the JK Racing Asia Series is being held as part of the Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix held at Sepang International Circuit on 9-10 April 2011. Lucas Auer of EuroInternational came out tops just pipping second placed man, Nabil Jeffri of Petronas Mofaz Racing by seven hundredths of a second. The Austrian driver was happy with pole but was sure he could have got better times. “It was a hard qualifying. The Formula One cars were driving before us and the track was really changing, but I think we managed it well. The car was very good and we’ll see tomorrow”. Auer claimed the fastest time of the day with a 2:11.643 on a hot and windy track.

When asked how he thinks the first race will be tomorrow “It will be an interesting race and we have to drive consistent” said Auer. EuroInternational Team Principal, Antonio Ferrari was happy with the result that he predicted before the session began. “The first part is done to get pole, now the second part is to win. That will be harder but we’ll try”. “The first eight drivers are within one second but in these conditions its easy to be close, the track is good for these cars. The tyres have a lot of pickup and we are far away from the real time that we can do here on a clean circuit” he ended. For Jeffri, who started out down on pace, he picked up his speed after a change of tyres and immediately improved his time setting his fastest time on his second lap of his second stint. “I think I did quite well in qualifying, finishing P2 just one tenth behind Lucas. I did a few mistakes but tomorrow’s race will be quite good”.
“This batch of drivers will be quite good, Afiq is just three thousandth of a second behind and it’s going to be quite close. I know where is my advantage and I’m going to use it tomorrow against them. We’ll see, the best man wins” said Jeffri. Meritus GP driver, Ikhwan, who was leading for most of the session made some changes to his settings on his second set of tyres that worked against him, relegating him down the order leaving him to finish the session in third.
“The first set of tyres were quite good and on the second set we made some changes and it wasn’t as good. I told Danny, my race engineer, the car’s behaviour and it should be good for tomorrow” said Ikhwan.
He continued “the tyres were good, very consistent and with the second set I was straight away doing 11.7seconds and did a few laps on that time. For sure the top five is close and it will be very competitive”. When asked how he wants to finish tomorrow, “For sure it’s first”.
Hiqmar Danial, Aaron Chang, Irfan Ilyas, Duvashen Padayachee and Jimmy Antunes all finished within one second of the pole finisher. Eurasia Motorsport’s Natasha Seatter claimed ninth just two tenth of a second behind Antunes while newcomer Calvin Seibl completed the top ten a further two hundredths of a second behind.
Race 1 of the JK Racing Asia Series will be held at 11.45am on Saturday, 9 April 2011 with Race 2 at 1.45pm on Sunday, 10 April. JK Racing Asia Series is supported by title sponsor JK Tyre & Industries Ltd, a company that has established a strong foundation for the development of motorsport in India and are now spreading their racing expertise to the rest of the Asian region. Also supporting the Series is another strong name recognised in motorsport, Air Asia. Although relatively new in the motorsport business, the company is committed to helping the growth and development of youth in motorsport in the region. The Series is powered by BMW and organised by Asia biggest motorsport event company, Motorsport Asia.
Qualifying Result
POS    NO      DRIVER                     ENTRANT                                 1ST TIME
1          11       L. AUER (R)              Eurointernational                     2:11.643
2          7          N. JEFFRI                 PETRONAS Mofaz Racing    2:11.744
3          88       A. YAZID                    Meritus GP                                2:11.747
4          8          H. DANIAL (R)          PETRONAS Mofaz Racing    2:11.949
5          23       A. CHANG                 Eurasia Motorsport                  2:12.246
6          5          I. ILYAS (R)               PETRONAS Mofaz Racing    2:12.423
7          45       D. PADAYACHEE   Eurasia Motorsport                  2:12.673
8          69       J. ANTUNES            Atlantic Racing Team             2:12.678
9          73       N. SEATTER             Eurasia Motorsport                  2:12.835
10       12       C. SEIBL (G)             Eurointernational                     2:12.844
11       3          P. LATHOURAS       Eurasia Motorsport                  2:13.194
12       78       A. KHRAPOV           Meritus GP                                2:13.311
13       6          F. ANG (R)                PETRONAS Mofaz Racing    2:13.489
14       38       N. AKASH (R)          Meritus GP                                2:13.591
15       58       R. BHARATH (R)     Meritus GP                                2:14.161
16       10       D. YOUNG                Atlantic Racing Team             2:14.261
17       61       J. SEO (G)                 E-Rain Racing                          2:14.998