“First of all, I would like to thank my team for all their hard work for this race. We had a good car, good setup and it was amazing.
“I had a good start but wasn’t good in the first corner. The first few laps my car was really slippery, and I don’t know if it was the track or car or tyres which wasn’t hot enough. I made a mistake and Lucas overtook me.
“I then just kept on pushing until turn 4 or turn 5 and took him there. Then I saw him going off and I kept pushing until I saw the Safety Car.
“After the Safety Car, I think I did my best lap. Then my Team Manager radioed me and told me to relax and just keep my time consistent to finish the race.
“It is my first win, I am so happy! Thank you to the team, my family and my sponsors” ended a beaming Ikhwan.
Auer’s mistake was costly as he was caught in the dirt and dropped down all the way to sixth. He then had to make his way up the ranks when the Safety Car was called out on lap 4 to clear the car of Irfan Ilyas who had a shunt, hitting a wall on turn 9. Ilyas was confirmed okay, and the race resumed just one lap after.
By this time, the gap had closed and Akash Nandy was up in second with Nabil Jeffri in third, followed by Freddie Ang, Duvashen Padayachee, Lucas Auer, Raj Bharath and Aaron Chang in the top eight.
At the restart Auer managed to take Padayachee, leaving him with Bharath. Auer then had a steady climb all the way up, while Ikhwan maintained his lead and began to open up a gap to Jeffri.
Then on Lap 8, Nandy spun, dropping him back down the ranks. By Lap 9, Auer was already up in third and began to push Jeffri. The Malaysian kept his cool and maintained his pace but Auer managed to find a way past in the next lap.
“My start was okay, I got a really good first corner. Then I tried to attack Afiq and he made a little mistake so I could pass him.
“Then he passed me back, I don’t know, I lost my race completely, I got two tyres in the dirt and everybody was overtaking me. Then the Safety Car came out and my engineer told me to cool down, cool down.
“I had a good car from the beginning and after the Safety Car, it was again like the first few laps and I could come back up to second.
Auer had a hard fight with Jeffri before managing to reclaim second “it was a pretty hard fight with Nabil. He is a good driver and he knows what to do. At the end, I had a really good car and I could pass him.
“In the last few laps, Afiq was too far away so I will attack him in the next race”.
For Jeffri, finishing on the podium was good and unexpected. He was quick to thank his team for a job well done. “I’d like to thank my team. They made a great job finding the pace from yesterday.
“I had a good race finishing on the podium starting from fifth. I had a really good start and managed to go up to third, then Akash came and there were quite a lot of cars in the back. Then when Irfan spun and the Safety Car came out, it closed the gap to Afiq and Lucas.
“It was a really good race I couldn’t expect better than what I had just now.
The remaining five laps was maintained in the top three while the battle was behind them with Ang and Padayachee changing positions several times. In the end, Ang took fourth on the last lap and maintained it to the chequered flag.
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