Patel takes first single-seater win

[1]

Aditya Patel made sure the national anthem would sound out over the Buddh International Circuit with a fighting win in the 16th and final round of the JK Racing Asia Series here on Sunday.

The Chennai youngster passed his otherwise dominant Euro International team-mate Aston Hare with two laps of the race to go and sweep home for his maiden single-seater title.
It rounded off a good day for the tricolour as in the earlier race, invitee racer Akhil Khushlani took second place behind South Africa’s Hare.
With three wins in four races here, rookie Hare wrapped up the JKRAS title too as he just pipped series leader and team-mate Nabil Jeffri of Malaysia. Countryman Afiq Ikhwan was third in the championship standings.
In the MRF Formula 2000 double-header, the absence of Saturday’s dominant winner Jordan King opened the way for Conor Daly of the US and Japan’s Yuudai Jinkawa to chalk up comfortable wins.
In the morning’s race, Briton Alice Powell continued her striking show on Indian soil with a second place finish behind Daly, while in the afternoon, it was Belgian San Dejonghe’s turn as runner-up to Jinkawa.
Britain’s Hector Hurst was third in both MRF F2000 races. King, who swept both MRF races on Saturday, flew back to London last night for a prior engagement.
A ecstatic Patel said after taking the chequered flag, “There was a lot of dicing going on in the front between Aston, Nabil and Afiq. I was right behind them just waiting for something to happen and then there was contact between Afiq and Nabil, which got me right behind Aston.
“Down the back straight, I managed to slipstream and get by and from there I just looked in front and kept going,” said Patel.
In the support races of the two main events, Mumbai’s Ameya Walav-alkar won the drivers’ championship in the VW Polo R Cup with 440 points ahead of Sandeep Kumar (342) and Rahil Noorani (221).
In the LGB Formula 4 class, Saran Vikram took top honours while Ashwin Sundar won the drivers’ title with 186 points. Sarosh Hataria (175) was second in the championship while Vikram (146) was third overall.
Coimbatore’s veteran driver N. Leelakrishnan took the chequered flag in the 6-lap Indian Touring Cars category ahead of B. Balavijay and Sunny Siddhu to also win the national title.
In the Indian Junior Touring Cars race, Mumbai’s Fahad Kutty stole a march over series leader S. Feroze Khan of Chennai and Coimbatore’s S. Sreeram.