King dazzles to win twice

Greater Noida, Dec 1 (IANS) England’s Jordan King completed an emphatic double in the MRF F2000 championship while Japan’s Yuudai Jinkawa walked away from a spectacular crash after ramming into a straying Tom Gladdis of Gibraltar on the opening day of the Sidvin Festival of Speed at the Buddh International Circuit (BIC) here Saturday.

The 18-year old King demonstrated raw speed and some smart moves that helped him win the first race after getting past front-running compatriot Akshay Luciano Bacheta who squandered a second place finish by running wide to drop to third behind American Conor Daly.

In the second race that began with a reverse grid, King, starting from sixth, made ground to get a jump on those ahead of him with some great overtaking and then moved into the on restart following the incident involving Gladdis and Jinkawa in the third lap.

Gladdis, who had run wide going into the first corner, cut right across the path of Jinkawa. Both the cars went off the track and Jinkawa’s car seemed to have made contact with the back of Gladdis’ machine launching the Japanese into the air. Jinkawa somersaulted and landed on heavily, but within seconds, he was out of the car virtually unhurt.

The race was red-flagged at that juncture on restart, King, running second behind Bacheta, put the hammer down to score a brilliant double that took him to the top of the leaderboard. However, King will be skipping the remaining two races Sunday as he flew off to England due to a prior commitment.

Bacheta finished second while Alice Powell, also from UK and the only female driver on the grid, came in third ahead of Daly.

The results:

MRF F2000 – Race 1 (10 laps): Jordan King (UK) 1 (19mins, 21.419secs); Conor Daly (USA) 2 (19:24.893); Akshay Luciano Bacheta (UK) 3 (19:26.188). Race 2 (12 laps): King 1 (19:17.762); Bacheta 2 (19:26.929); Alice Powell (UK) 3 (19:27.301).

IANS 2012-12-01 19:22:06