Armaan who was right on top of the time sheets in the final official practice session had another setback in qualifying. While on his hot lap and well up on the times in sector 1 and sector 2, the red flag came out in sector 3 due to an accident and Armaan had to abandon his best lap on the new tyre run. This set him back to 12th on the grid. However in Race 1, Armaan managed to pass a few cars and finish in 9th place and in race 2, made up a few more places to finish 7th. Overtaking at Brands is extremely difficult due to the nature of the circuit with the steep gradients and high speed corners. Thus it was all down to qualifying and this is what has been hurting the young Indian. Armaan’s race pace has always been in the top 5 and this was evident yet again in both the races. However scoring points is important to keep Armaan in contention of finishing in the Top 5 in the championship.
Commented Armaan : We were really quick in the test sessions and was very confident for the weekend. However, the usual qualifying syndrome hit me and in Q1, there was nothing I could do as I was on my hot lap when the new tyres had come in and was up on the times in sector 1 & 2 which was good enough to put me in the top 3, but that was not to be as there was a crash in front of me in sector 3 and the red flags came out and thus had to abandon the lap. The tyres never came in after that and I dropped down to 12th as the times were so close. Qualifying 2 was looking good and when on my hot lap with the boost, I messed up sector 1 a bit and posted the fastest time in sector 2 and 3, but as I lost 4 tenths in sector 1, I was 9th on the grid for race 2. Both races were good and very tight and the fastest lap times of 12 drivers were all within 100th of a second. It is almost impossible to overtake in Brands and with everyone posting similar lap times, it was good that I managed to overtake a few cars and finish in the points in both races.
I now look forward to sort out the bugs in qualifying for the next race in Brno- Chezk Republic in 2 weeks from now.
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