Malaysia ARRC: Krishnan, Rajiv finish in points

The 2016 season of ARRC kicked off this weekend at Johor Circuit in Malaysia, featuring five different categories.

The three aforementioned Indian drivers were in attendance, with Jagan Kumar missing the weekend, despite being featured in the entry list.

Points for Rajiv and Krishnan

During practice, Rajiv showed promising pace in the Honda CBR250, finishing seventh and ninth in the two sessions respectively.

Krishnan was within a second of his fellow countrymen and was classified 11th and 14th in practice.

Later on Friday, Rajiv qualified in 11th place with a time of 1m53.319s, 2.5 seconds behind pole sitter and Japanese driver Hiroki Nakamura.

Meanwhile, Krishnan was 15th quickest with a time of 1m53.606s.

During the opening race, both drivers made up places from their starting positions, with Rajiv finishing in eighth place and Krishnan crossing the line in 14th.

At the front, Nakamura led from pole position, winning the race by a comfortable margin of 5.7 positions.

Hafiz Nor Azman and Md Harith Farhan, who were separated by a tenth of a second, secured the remaining two podium positions.

The second race proved to be a hard nut to crack for the Indian drivers, with the duo failing to finish in the top 10.

Krishnan and Rajiv were classified 11th and 15th respectively, as Nakamura took another victory from Azman and Farhan.

After the opening round, Rajiv and Krishnan occupy ninth and 16th place in the standings with nine and seven points respectively.

No start for Subramanian in race two

In practice, Subramanian was seventh and fifth respectively in the Suzuki FU150, lapping within 1.5 seconds of the leaders during his second outing.

In qualifying, he set the eighth fastest time of the session, 2m00.916s, as Indonesia’s Jefri Tosema took pole position with a time of 1m59.312s.

Subramanian’s starting position set him nicely for the race, but the Indian driver retired with seven laps to go after an apparent collision with Japan’s Maxi Hattori.

Tosema, meanwhile, went on to win the race from pole position, beating the charging trio of Md Rozaliman Zakaria, Rizal Feriyadi and April King H. Mascardo.

The second race turned out to be just as frustrating with Subramanian failing to start the race, the Indian sits with no points after the opening round.

At the front, Zakaria avoided the first lap mess to take victory, with Mascardo and Feriyadi accompanying him on the podium.