Swiss Hutless Asia-Pacific drivers took to the Sepang kart track last weekend for the 3rd round of the Malaysian Rotax Max Challenge. In the final for the Juniors the team had two drivers in the top-5 with Ikhwan taking 2nd place and Hasif in 4th while in the Senior category Mikko Nassi finished a close fought-final in 2nd place.
For the Swiss Hutless Juniors the weekend was a success with Hasif moving to joint second in the championship standings and Afiq closed in on 4th place and is now only 8 points from second place down from the 12 it was before the start of the race weekend. The second place finish in the final was also Afiq’s best finish in the championship having previously finished 6th in round 2. Both drivers are looking to build on these results and mount an even stronger challenge to championship leader Ooi Fei Hoong in round 4 to be held on the 11th and 12th of August again at Sepang. Muhammad Rahami finished the final in 7th place and is looking forward to improving on this at the next round.
In the Senior category Mikko Nassi stamped his authority by taking pole position in qualifying at the very last moment on a drying track. He found similar pace in heat 1 taking first place comfortably ahead of David Ong and Masedenal Ali. Heat 2 was yet again on a drying track and Mikko was able to control the race from the front which put him on pole position once again for the final. Starting along-side Masedenal Ali in the pre-final Mikko lost the lead on the start but was back in 1st place before the end of the first lap and then kept 1st place to the end of the race to score valuable championship points. The final was a real battle between Mikko and Ryan Mumford with Ryan taking the lead on the start and then edging out a gap of over 1 second over the next ten laps. Mikko was able to close in during the last few laps and the two touched wheels going onto the last lap with Ryan just able to keep Mikko in 2nd place up to the finish line. “It was a close race and although I’m disappointed to have finished second after being first all weekend it was still our best weekend this year as we were able to avoid problems in the pre-final and final which has cost us a lot of points in earlier races.†Mikko moved from 8th in the championship standings to 4th and is looking to close in further to the championship lead in the fourth round.
Full results from the weekend can be viewed on kkswp.mylaps.com.