SEPANG: Malaysia’s Mohd Afiq Ikh-wan closed out the inaugural JK Racing Asia Series in style by winning all four races at the Sepang International Circuit (SIC) yesterday but still missed out on the overall drivers’ title.

The 20-year-old www.Meritus.GP driver was on pole for all four races and ended the season with 285 points after winning 10 of the 18 rounds.

However, Afiq was beaten to the drivers’ title by Eurointernational’s Lucas Auer, who despite only winning seven races, was consistently in the points in every round.

The Austrian scored 292 points to grab the single-seater title ahead of Afiq by only seven points.

Despite dominating the second half of the season, Afiq paid the price for his slow start in the opening six rounds where he had some bad luck on the track and some difficulty with his car early on.

“It feels great. I cannot believe it right now.

“After the qualifying we thought we would lose the championship,” said the Auer.

The Austrian started the first two races in fourth place but finished both in second, leaving him to start from second for the last two races.

He set a good pace but was not fast enough to catch up with Afiq.

Auer took some time to digest the fact that he was the champion and was calm as he got out of his car, finishing the 18th race of the year in third spot behind Afiq and another Malaysian, Nabil Jeffri.

The final race also saw Afiq creating history by claiming his fourth back-to-back win for his 10th triumph of the season.

Afiq was filled with mixed emotions about the weekend.

“I thank my team as they have done a fantastic job. Thank you to Petronas for sponsoring me,” he said.

“I am happy to have won 10 races even though we didn’t win the championship.

“We have proved that we are a strong and competitive team.

“I am disappointed not to have won the championship, but that’s racing,” said Afiq.

Nabil completed the season third in the standings with 186 points and one win.