OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE IN JEREZ FOR KHAN, AIMING FOR THE CHAMPIOBSHIP
TP Formula and Adam Khan were on form in the Spanish round of the Euroseries3000 closing the gap with the opponents and launching the Anglo-Pakistani towardsthe top of the championship rankings. With 14 points gained on Leal and Razia (racing in GP2Asia this week-end), 12 on Onidi and 3 on Prost the fight for the title becomes really close and,with 4 races still to go and 38 points available, the final rounds will be extremelyexciting.
On Saturday morning rain started to fall just at the beginning of the QUALIFYING session andTP Formula was the only team to mount rain tyres which allowed Khan to immediately score thebest performance and to remain at the top of the results even when also the other driverschoose to change tyres. However, in the final ten minutes, rain stopped and the track began todry so a new fight for the pole began: Prost managed to score the best time, followed by Onidi,while Khan remained blocked in the traffic and could not improve his lap time, finishing third.
In RACE 1 Leal, hit by Mendez in the early stages, was forced to retire while the other three titlecontenders crossed the finish line after lap 1 in the same starting order but, immediately afterthe chicane, Onidi, put under pressure by Khan and in an attempt to attack Prost, spun andfinished his race in the gravel. Khan was the faster on the track, also scoring thepoint for fastest lap, and engaged a spectacular fight with the son of the 4 times F1 worldchampion but, aiming for the championship, decided not to take too many risks and finishedsecond, just 8 tenths behind the French.
RACE 2 has been a 90 Km long show with all the protagonists involved in a close fight and withKhan succeeding in recovering from seventh to second place . Due to the reversed grid (of thefirst 8), the TP Formula driver was starting between Crestani (6th) and Prost (8th), but already atthe first lap was ahead of both of them as well as of the poleman Zapata.
The second lap started with a very close battle between Khan and Crestani with themovertaking each others several times but with the Anglo-Pakistani then managing to remain atthe front and begin the third lap in fourth position behind Garza, Beretta and Mendez. At thisstage five drivers were in within a few seconds. Khan, despite the pressure made on him by theGP Racing duo, kept attacking the two Elk Motorsport drivers in front of him pushing Mendezinto a mistake and then remarkably overtaking Beretta from the outside on turn 1. He thereforegained another podium, finishing second behind Garza who had taken advantage of the fightbehind him. Crestani, fourth, had the best on his team mate Onidi. Leal finished out of the pointsbut winning his battle with Prost (8th) lasted throughout the race.
In the championship standings Khan is now third just three points from Onidi and 11 from Prostdespite having missed the first two events in Vallelunga and Spa because of an injury to hisshoulder caused by an accident in the Brands Hatch A1 Grand Prix race.
Next round will be in Barcelona in two weeks time and it announced to be really spectacular withso many drivers ready to fight hard in view of the Italian grand finale in Magione on November30th.
Adam Khan: “It is fantastic to be on the podium twice in the same weekend despite thereversed grid. The second race, in particular, was extremely exciting and challenging because Ialso had pressure from behind so I had to judge very carefully when to make the moves. Thecar has always been very fast and I am in a great shape, not feeling the pressure so I really lookforward to Barcelona and of course aiming for the championship."
