ARRC: Penalty costs Indian riders points in final race

Honda Racing India finished outside points after both its riders Rajiv Sethu and Senthil Kumar received five-spot penalty for exceeding the track limit in the seventh round of the FIM Asia Road Racing Championship, here on Sunday.

Senthil rode a superb race to finish 11th while Sethu was 13th but were pushed to 16th and 18th respectively for exceeded the track limit on turn 12 during the 10th and final lap of the Asia Production 250 cc category.

FIM imposed the penalty on five riders including Mohd Muzakkir, who took the top spot.

Astra Honda's Lucky Hendiransya's seventh place finish was amended to 12th.

Starting 16th, Sethu's good start put him at 10th spot by the end of the opening lap but he soon slipped to 16th. Making recovery, he moved up to 11th position by lap six where top 12 riders were fighting it out in a 1.8 second gap.

By lap eight, the Chennai-based Sethu had overtaken two more riders but a wide cornering on turn 12 in final lap saw Sethu finish 13th.

"I put up a very good fight in Race 2. While I was really excited by my 13th finish, the 5 position penalty was crushing for me. But at the end of the day, I had taken a wide corner and had to bear the brunt of it. Overall, 2019 was for sure a great season and I hope to get better next year," Sethu said.

Senthil, in his debut ARRC season, came up with a splendid effort on Sunday after crashing out of the first race on Saturday and recorded his personal best lap record of 1:54:323.

After the race, he said, "Today, I recorded my personal best lap time in the morning warm up (1:55:688) which gave me more confidence before the race. Despite a bad start in the afternoon race, I gained 11 positions over my 22nd start to finish 11th which was my best ever finish till date. But the FIM penalty cost me.

"Despite this, today has 2 positives for me. For the first time my gap with lead rider was just 1.693 seconds and I also bettered my personal best lap time to 1.54 seconds."
"Rajiv Sethu too has grown immensely and their (the duo's) 2019 performance has made others take us as serious competition now. Surely, today the penalty was a downer but it is an opportunity for the riders to better their craft further. We will start the 2020 season testing tomorrow itself."