Rajiv grabs six points with top 10 finish at ARRC

IDEMITSU Honda Racing India team rider Rajiv Sethu recorded his best-ever top 10 finish, grabbing six points in the fifth round of FIM Asia Road Racing Championship 2019 (ARRC) at Zhuhai circuit here Sunday.

Starting 14th, Rajiv dropped to 18th before recovering 8 positions in 9 laps to finish in Top 10 in an action packed AP 250 race 2.

This is his second top 10 finish in his 3 ARRC seasons, his first being in the Australian round race 1 earlier.

Despite a decent 14th position on the grid, a bad start dragged Rajiv to 18th ending lap 1 itself. But learning from yesterday, Rajiv continued his assault on the time sheets immediately and recorded his best ever 1:54:055 lap time in lap 2 itself.

By lap 3, Rajiv gained 5 positions. He was now with the top bunch riding in less than 2 seconds gap. In lap 4, he gained over his old adversary Cao Viet Nam putting him in 12th position, but an error in lap 5 dragged him back to 14th.

Despite in-fighting he maintained his metronomic pace till 8th lap. It was in lap 9 that Rajiv overtook the Malaysian trio of Nazirul Izzat, Muhammad Izam and Muzakkir Mohamed and finally finished in Top 10.

Senthil Kumar started from 7th row and his start pushed him to 16th but moderated to 21st ending lap 1. By lap 3, Senthil regained 3 positions to 18th. A cornering mistake in lap 5 resulted in 3 riders overtaking him, putting him 21st.

But continuing to challenge himself in the bunch of 6 riders, Senthil finally overtook 3 riders in turn 1 and finish 17th with an overall 2 positions gain from his start.

IDEMITSU Honda Racing India is tied in Top 8 teams of AP 250 class with 32 points.