Adhikari Survives Traffic Scare in Sepang Pre-Q Win

Best In The World Motorsport driver Asim Adhikari survived a late scare with a lapped car to claim victory in the Pre-Qualifying race at the Sepang International Circuit.

With 5 minutes remaining in the 30 minute sprint rate, the lead group of 12 caught the lone lapped car of Min Jun Sun which was then being lead by Adhikari’s teammate Anita Horford in what was then a BITW 1-2 since the start of the race. The American caught the Porsche at the wrong time, the transition from Turn 6 back to the pit straight, and was temporarily blocked in while the Nepalese driver got past and was able to clear the Porsche when they reached turn 4 the next lap. Horford would once again get trapped behind the lap car, this time at turn 5, allowing Gia Van Dycke in the Belgio Ferrari to get past. Adhikari would continue to controll the pace until the end of the race, getting the maximum 4 points out of the Pre-Qualified session after getting the pole position an hour earlier with Van Dycke finishing second and Horford third.

Leading the rest of the lead group would be Quentin Bisping in his best performance of the season so far. The Euromotor driver started fifth for the race after a great performance in the 15 minute qualifying session, using a BITW Lamborghini as a drafting partner for the duration of the session. The Canadian would swap fourth place with Milan Vukovic in the Onyx Saleen a few times during the race but would eventually take controll of fourth after the Croation had to check up behind Gia Van Dycke.

Losing sight of the lead 12 early on would be Nikolas Hirvonen in the Globex Lister, but thirteenth would be where he would stay for the duration of the race. He lost a second per lap compared to the pace of the lead group, but all he needed to do was remain in the top 17 to advance to the rest of the weekend; which was something he, Tommy Douglas, Leandro Moreira, Dawn Granger, and Heleni Boveri did. Mattias Kjellerup, who started fifteenth, struggled for race pace throughout and slowly dropped out of the top seventeen, finishing twenty-second and the last car on the lead lap.

Other full-time entries who failed to advance where Chiara Rossi in the second ICE-3 Ferrari and Alexi Melvanov, with Nasser and Svanberg in part-time entries also failing to advance. With a fly-away guest team partaking in the race weekend, it meant that one less car would advance past Pre-Qualifying.

Race Results – After 31 Laps

Fastest Lap: Car 77 (Minarae Ferrari) – Nathan Scott – 58.181