Jeffri’s lead hangs in the balance after Hare makes a clean sweep

 Aston Hare closed the gap in the JK Racing Asia Series Championship today when he claimed both race wins from Pole for Rounds 13 & 14 at Buddh International Circuit.

Two exciting races were held today in front of the SIDVIN Festival of Speed crowd at the Indian circuit, where Hare and Afiq Ikhwan climbed on the podium twice whilst Championship leader Nabil Jeffri was left with two troubled races with penalties.

Jeffri’s first race was marred when he had a collision with his Eurointernational teammate that left his car damaged as Hare spun on the track dropping down the order from the lead. Both drivers rejoined the race but while Hare recovered his lead, Jeffri tried to pit in to change tyres and as he left was penalised with a drive through for speeding in the pitlane and went on to finish the race in tenth.

Jeffri still leads the Championship but now with a marginal 12 points lead from Hare and while Ikhwan realistically put his chances at winning the Championship aside saying he just wants to win races this weekend.

For Hare, he was happy with the races but is still looking forward to two more good battles tomorrow after two good races today. After the second race, Hare said, “I finally got off the line really well this time. Got through the first corner and made sure I didn’t crash or anything. Nabil attempted to pass me into turn four but obviously he wasn’t able to make it stick. From there I was able to control the race and making sure I didn’t overheat the tyres as I have to use the tyres for race four, so on the last lap I just backed off about four seconds to make sure they were in good condition”.

“It was a pretty good race. Afiq and Nabil had a pretty good dice but I was able to pull away and at no point did I feel I was under any pressure and I was able to control my race.

Hare is still keeping a very level head even after winning two races today saying, “I came to this last round with no expectations because I was so far behind, so I don’t see why it should be any different. If you start putting yourself under pressure you start going backwards so just keep it cool, calm and collected” ended the Rookie driver.

Meanwhile Ikhwan finished Round 13 in third and Round 14 in second both after heated battles with Eurointernational’s Indian representatives, Akhil Khushlani, who finished second in Round 13, and Aditya Patel, who finished behind him in Round 14.

Ikhwan was satisfied with his race weekend and enjoyed the on track challenges saying there is no pressure on him “I think all the pressure are on Aston and Nabil” he said with a laugh.

“I struggled a lot with the car, but as a driver I just did my job and kept the time consistent and finish the race. For sure I think tomorrow will be better, today was really hard to drive. Aston is really fast, it’s really hard to keep up with him. I’m happy with my results now and I just have to finish all the races” he ended.

Khushlani impressed in Round 13 and was leading the race for four laps before being overtaken by Hare on lap eight. “I had a good fight with quite a few drivers and enjoyed it but I hoped to have won it as I was quite quick up there in the mid segment but my tyres just started graining so I had lots of oversteer and I think Aston’s setup was much better. He finally caught up and we had a little bit of a moment but I didn’t want to overdrive and risk his Championship so I played it safe” he ended with a smile.

In Round 14, it was Patel who represented the country when he climbed on the podium in third. He spoke about the race during the interview and was happy with the challenge he faced during the race. “I think it was the first lap that changed everything because it was pretty tight between Akhil, Aidan and me. Akhil and Aidan went a little bit hot into the hairpin at turn four and left the door open and I got through.

“Akhil caught me again, he passed me and I passed him again and from there on I was following Afiq and Nabil and I notice that Nabil had a drive through penalty. So I just kept my pace, I knew Aidan and Akhil were fighting in the back and I just took it from there” said Patel after the race.

Aidan Wright impressed when he battled with Patel and Khushlani in both races. The Meritus.GP Rookie driver held his own to finish both races in fifth.

Three Meco Racing drivers completed Round 13 behind him with Visnu Prasad, Akhil Rabindra and Mexican Diego Duez in sixth to eighth respectively. Amer Beg of US Formula Project and Jeffri completed the top ten.

Meanwhile Prasad, Jeffri, Duez, Rabindra and Malaysian Ashraff Dewal completed the top ten for Round 14.

The JK Racing Asia Series will continue with Rounds 15 & 16 will be held Sunday, 2 December 2012, scheduled at 1.10pm and 4.30pm respectively