Jazeman loses control, title fight will go down to the wire

By LIM TEIK HUAT

ZHUHAI: The title fight will go down to the wire after young Malaysian Jazeman Jaafar finished out of the podium in the first two races of the season finale of the Formula BMW Asia Series at the Zhuhai International Circuit yesterday.

Jazeman, bidding to become the first Malaysian and youngest ever winner of the Series, only had himself to blame for squandering the opportunity to pile up additional points in what turned out to be a dramatic day yesterday.

Jazeman started Race 19 from ninth on the grid but drove brilliantly to move up to fifth position after the fifth lap. But all his hard work came undone after Jazeman lost control while trying to overtake his CIMB Team Qi-Meritus team-mate James Grunwell.

Colombian Sebastian Saavedra of AO’s Racing won the 12-lap race in 20:32.446 ahead of Kyle Mitchell of South Africa, who finished in 20:41.383.

Jazeman: ‘There are a lot of crazy drivers out there and I can only hope for the best’

Jazeman was forced to start Race 20 from second last on the grid but made a remarkable recovery to overtake nine cars to move up to fifth.

That was before Timothy Gladdis of AO’s Racing sparked a chain reaction when he rear-ended into the car in front of him and eventually led to seven cars taken out of the race.

Six laps had already been completed then and the race was immediately red flagged.

Jazeman eventually finished fifth behind the safety car but it was no consolation to the 14-year-old, who saw his championship lead whittled down to just 20 from 66 points previously.

Indonesia’s Zahir Ali of Singapore-based Team TARADTM is closest to Jazeman on second spot and 674 points.

Jazeman, who was seen walking away in frustration after his car came to a halt on the gravel in Race 19 earlier in the day, blamed himself for the outcome.

“I could have just stayed behind Zahir and that would be enough to get a good gap going in the standings. But I made the mistake of trying to move up and it’s all my fault,” said Jazeman, who has won eight races in the championship prior to Zhuhai.

Today will be another nerve-wracking day for Jazeman and the best he can do now is to learn from his mistake.

“It’s going to be another different day tomorrow. While I will go out and push hard, the fact is there are a lot of crazy drivers out there and I can only hope for the best.”