India’s Teenage sensation and JK Tyre prodigy Armaan Ebrahim has made an exciting debut drive in Round 1 of the Asian Formula BMW Championship 2005 in Bahrain that was run as a support race with the Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix. Finishing 4th overall in the list of drivers he has also raced ahead of the other rookies to top the scholarship class.
Armaan, the youngest driver in the championship had to be contended with the fact that he was given only one test session on the track, as there was no additional testing allowed due to the tight Formula 1 schedule. In the practice session, to everyone’s surprise, Armaan topped the timings with a lap time of 2 min and 11.0 secs.
In the first qualifying round, Armaan put in a good drive to finish 3rd. It was clearly visible that the kid was taken off guard with all the pressure from various instructors to understand all the data from the car and translate information to his engineer. Thus no changes were made to his car and as a result of it he suffered a lot of understeer due to the additional rubber on the track left by the F1 cars. This placed him 6th on the grid in the second qualifying session.
In race 1 Armaan made a steady start and was very cautious into the first corner and in his first race, it was the right thing to do. Armaan dropped back to 7th place and then drove a really good race to move upto 5th at the chequered flag. In Race 2 Armaan had to fight his way up from 6th place and a good start was really important. Armaan did make a real good start but got bottled in at the first corner and lost 4 places. But from this point, Armaan showed why he has been rated as the next Indian in F1. He drove real quick, smooth and aggressive to move upto 5th after 7 hard laps. In the last lap Armaan made a real good move on the Australian, Michael Patrizi into the hairpin and both cars brushed wheels. Armaan managed to come out ahead and crossed the chequered flag in 4th place. In doing so Armaan also came first in the scholarship class.
Overall it was a superb start to the season and Armaan just 15 years old has now made a point to everyone in the paddock and pits that he is definitely now a true championship contender.
Salman Al Khalifa from Bahrain finished 1st in Race 1 and 2nd in Race 2 while 2004 BMW Rookie Champion Robert Boughie finished first in Race 2 and 6th in Race 1.
The next race is in Sepang, Malaysia on the 15th of May 2005. Armaan heads out to Malaysia from Bahrain to participate in the Asia Max Karting Championship in Kotta Baru on the 10th of April 2005.
Armaan is presently sponsored by JK Tyre and BMW Motor sport
