OKAYAMA (OCT 25): The Pizza Company Team Qi-Meritus driver, Earl Bamber, claimed his third pole to flag win of the Formula V6 Asia season today at Okayama
International Circuit.
The 19-year old maintained a fast pace close to the pace he set during the
qualifying session held earlier in the day.
"It was a good race and I'm delighted to have finished first," said the New
Zealander, who took part in his first GP2 Asian race last weekend.
"Driving in a GP2 car last weekend was a a great experience for me and
helped me
today. The car is fantastic, the engineering team did a great job so hopefully
we can do the same thing tomorrow."
It was a clean 17-lap race held in cool conditions where the practice
session of
the World Touring Car Championship helped to lay some rubber for grip on the
otherwise slippery circuit. The only casualty was Kevin Chen whose steering was
misaligned after rubbing tyres with Hafiz Koh at the start.
The rolling start served Bamber well giving him the chance to pull away
instantly from the start of the race.
"It was a good race. We were leading into the first corner and we managed to
pull a gap in the first lap and after that I just concentrated on
keeping a good
pace. We managed to get close to our qualifying time and maintained the pace
throughout the race," he said.
Bamber's teammate and fiercest rival, Thailand's James Grunwell took
home second
place but was not happy with the pace of his car. Grunwell had to fend off the
constant attack of Australian driver Isa-Ro Charlez right from the start of the
race.
"From the moment we set foot on the track we didn't have the best pace. To hold
Charlie off, who was obviously quicker than me the whole race means we did a
good job. It's going to be a long night of looking at the data and to
do a track
walk or two to see where we are losing time and then get out there and
challenge
Earl because it shouldn't be like this, or this far at least. Hopefully
tomorrow, Charlie and I can bring the race to Earl" said Grunwell.
Team boss Firhat Mokhzani said: "It was a great result for the team as we are
pulling away from our rivals. Earl drove a great race while James
pushed him all
the way.
"Having said that, I am confident we can still improve on our times. Maybe we
can go quicker in tomorrow's race."
The 28-lap Round 8 Formula V6 Asia race will be held tomorrow.
2008 Formula V6 Asia Championship Races 7 & 8 Okayama International Circuit Japan Sat-Sun Oct 25-26
Qualifying
1. Earl Bamber (NZ) The Pizza Company Team Qi-Meritus 1.29.226
2. James Grunwell (Thai) The Pizza Company Team Qi-Meritus) 1.29.954
3. Isaiah-Ro Charlez (Aust) 1.30.149
4. Kevin Chen (USA)1.31.513
5. Robin Tato (Ind) 1.32.852
6. Hafiza Koh (Sin) 1.33.326
7. Michael Ho (Mac) 1.33.331
Race 17 laps
1. Earl Bamber The Pizza Company Team Qi-Meritus 25.25.707
2. James Grunwell The Pizza Company Team Qi-Meritus +41.187
3. Isaiah Ro-Charlez +41.719
4. Hafiz Koh +51.728
5. Michael Ho +57.591
6. Mark Williamson +59.453
7. Robin Tato +1.01.791
Fastest lap: Earl Bamber 1 29.311
Points after Race 6 of 10
1. Earl Bamber (TPC Team Qi-Meritus) 74
2. James Grunwell (TPC Team Qi-Meritus) 71
3. Armaan Ebrahim 59
4. Kevin Chen 40
5. Isaiah-Ro Charlez 34
6. Mark Williamson 28
7. Robin Tato 24
8. Hafiz Koh 23
9. Ricardo Bruins 14
10. Katsuhiro Konno -
2008 AFOS Formula V6 Asia Championship
Calendar
Rnds 1 & 2: May 16-18 Sepang Malaysia
Rnds 3 & 4: June 20-22 Sepang Malaysia
Rnds 5 & 6: July 18-20 Sentul Indonesia
Rnds 7 & 8 October 24-16 Okayama Japan
Rnds 9 & 10: Nov 21-23 Shanghai China
