Promising Indian driver Armaan Ebrahim on Sunday nailed a commanding win in the Grand Race of the Formula Renault V6 Asia Championship at the Autopolis circuit in Japan.
The circuit, which used to host Formula One races a decade ago, is a drivers circuit with its fast and winding uphill and downhill corners.
The V6 Renault made its debut in Autopolis this year and Armaan goes down in the record books as the first winner of the Grand race in the V6 in Japan.
The 18-year-old Indian, who dominated the official practice session, started from 6th place and had his work cut out. A brilliant start saw him move into second place by lap one and Armaan started to close the gap on pole sitter James Winslow.
By lap 4 Armaan was on James's gearbox and by lap 5, he put the pressure on James to such an extent that the Englishman spun. Armaan took the lead and started to pull away with Karl Reindlinger from Australia behind him followed by Earl Bamber from New Zealand.
But James's managed to get back on track and was politely let ahead by his team mate Earl Bamber. In the meantime, Armaan steadily pulled away from Karl and opened up more than 10 seconds of a lead. Armaan settled down and conserved the car, not wanting a repeat of the sprint race while James managed to pass Karl who was suffering with lack of rear grip, to finish second.
Armaan sounded delighted after the victory.
"Firstly, I would like to wish everybody, Eid Mubarak. It was a great win and it was even better to win on a festive note," he said.
"Winning in Japan is fantastic as the fan following is great and the circuit was a real driver's circuit. After England, it's probably the best place to drive in as the following is so huge...
"However, it is really disappointing that I could not win both races which would have more or less sealed the championship for me," he said.