Sunday, October 30, 2011 –The first Indian Grand Prix  weekend of racing (Round 13 and 14) of the 20-car JK Racing Asia Series took place on 29-30 October  at the Buddh International Circuit as one of the nine lap long support races to Formula One’s first ever Indian Grand Prix on the magnificent 5.125 km long course.

For free practice, Afiq Ikhwan Yazid, and rookies Akash Nandy and  India Raj Bharath showed their strength at the challenging circuit and trying to match their car to the taste of the new Indian circuit  respectively finished with a best time of 2.04.754 for Afiq, 2.06.602 forAkash Nandy which lap was aborted because of a red flag, and 2.09.034 for Raj Bharath while guest driver Akhil Khushlani clocked a promising 2.07.513.

Despite the 32 degrees Centigrade, the qualifying session was exciting. The four www.Meritus.GP drivers finished in top ten:  Afik Ikhwan Yazid was in an interesting third position with a lap of 2.00.620. Akash Nandy finished in fifth position and Raj Bharath in tenth with 2.02.839. Guest driver Akhil Khushlani showed a higher potential than on the paper with a ninth fastest (2.02.831).

It was warm and sunny (30°) for the start of the 10-lap race that was eventful. A few dramas with a start that was aborted as a competitor did not find his starting position. The F1 starting lights distracted the drivers.  Afiq had a promising start, but pole man Auer kept his advantage and then Afiq Ikhwan Yazid felt he was hold up by team  Eurointernational guest driver Lorenzo Camplese. Then while overtaking  Afiq Ikhwan Yazid was not given enough overtaking space in the manoeuvre and he  lost the front wing with Camplese. A  few laps later Akash Nandy spun before continuing and restarting from 15^th. The energy from the start was not capitalized as Lucas Auer partially protected by his guest driver team-mate dashed from pole to podium.

The start of race 2 was strong for Afiq Ikhwan Yazid who could not progress as again he was held up by guest driver Lorenzo Camplese. Meanwhile Lucas put a big gap of.4.5’ between them. The gap was later too big and Afiq Ikhwan Yazid was after that never able to catch up with Lucas Auer the double winner of the week-end

Nevertheless an apparent disappointing result despite the team having four strong drivers ready for a taste of India. Guest driver Akhil Kushlani was the highest  finisher ( top six from a P9 start) for team www.Meritus.GP in race 1. Afiq Ikhwan Yazid managed 10thplace and Raj Bharaht P12  from a P10 start. As for him Akash Nandy ranked 13^th in race 1. However, Afiq Ikhwan Yazid was on the podium in second position. But Afiq was not the only one in the points and Akash Nandy ranked 7^th while Guest driver Akhil Khushlani finished 9^th. Raj Bharath was slightly more unlucky with a 15^th place finish.

Afiq Ikhwan Yazid commented: “I  thought I would be  pleased with these two.results in India. I just loved the smooth track. But I was unlucky with a guest competitor holding up the field. I tried to make a pass but it caused a contact in race 1. I then suffered from loosing my front wing. But we simply had no time for me to come in and change it. The following day, in race 2 my start was stronger. But again the Eurointernational team guest driver was not easy to pass and this made me loose a better position. Nevermind, I am confident for a good end of the season and I am looking forward to returning end of November on this incredible track “.

Akhil Kushlani “ I had not been racing for quite a while and I am very proud of the results. To finish sixth and ninth are a great result and I am pleased for the team and would like to thank them for their confidence in me.  With a bit more practice, I could even do better. A pity I am only a guest driver, but I am proud of my good working together with the team.”

Raj Bharat: “l had a good qualifying and I feel I have been driving well the whole week-end. However, I feel thata  12^th and 15^th results do not reflect my potential even if I am pleased to have finished the races in front of my home public and of my fans. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the two races. The grip was so perfect that I felt that the race was too short with 9 laps only. Some of us were not familiar with the start procedure used for the F1 cars. Then after that in race 1,  I touched with one of the Petronas car and that caused a chain reaction. I am just so happy especially to have done this in front of the F1 fraternity and in front of my home crowd! I was ready to repeat again a better result in race 2 at the Budd International circuit but I lost two positions at the start and after that I was understeering and my timing worsen and worsen…and I even spun. But in the end, I was able to control and  I managed to master the track that was playing games with us”

Akash Nandy: “ P13 is not what I wanted after a good start. A contact with my team-mate Akhil disrupted my race I. It was very impressive looking back, because I could have had the pole if I had managed to get my lap together. In race 2, I had a good start. I climbed to third. But I was blocked behind one of the competitors and my tires suffered so much that I started loosing grip and then positions. At least I was able to limit the damage. 7^th is not too bad in the end. But I am confident for a positive end of the season for the four last races. Now we now this track and it is great fun to be here.”

Firhat Mokzhani, Team team manager, Meritus commented: “We are disappointed this week-end for Meritus.GP, because we were well prepared and sometimes you cannot plan racing incidents. But there are four  more races to go this season for our Malaysian team. Raj and Kash performed really well this week-end. After six  wins in a row this season  that helped us reduce the points difference to the current leader we still have good hopes as everything is still open in the championship and we are very pleased with our 2^nd place finish on podium today in race 2. Compliments to our guest driver who produced  a good effort in the team. I want to congratulate all drivers and the mechanics for being so strong all weekend and let’s hope that our good fortune will continue in the remaining races when we return here end of November.”