Asian Karting Championship micro max title winner India’s Shahan Ali Mohsin (centre) is flanked by local boys runner-up Hayden Haikal (left) and third placed N.G. Oscar in Sepang, Malaysia, on Sunday.
Asian Karting Championship micro max title winner India’s Shahan Ali Mohsin (centre) is flanked by local boys runner-up Hayden Haikal (left) and third placed N.G. Oscar in Sepang, Malaysia, on Sunday.
Shahan Ali Mohsin created history by becoming the first Indian to win the micro max title in the final weekend of the Asian Karting Championship at Sepang in Malaysia.
Agra-native Mohsin managed to thwart his main championship rival Hayden Haikal in a tough battle.
Right from practice one, Shahan was in the mix for the top three albeit missing a few tenths from the outright benchmark. However, he almost magically put it together in qualifying — taking pole position by only 0.2 secs — a dominant showing since the drivers from second to fifth place were separated by just five-hundredth of a second.
Coming into the weekend, Shahan led the micro max championship by five points to title rival Hayden.
Therefore, it was critical to have a clean weekend that included two heats, a pre-final and the final.
In the heats, Shahan kept his composure despite a few brushes with Amer Harris, who was not in championship contention but was fighting aggressively to take lead.
Shahan fought hard and drove past Amer in both heats but the latter aggressively took the place back on both ocassion. The Indian didn’t want to risk a DNF. Consequently, Shahan finished second in both heats but was crucially ahead of Hayden who finished third both times.
For the pre-finals, Shahan started second followed by Haikal. Once again Shahan settled for second place as Haikal was more than four seconds behind him.
Eventually, Shahan settled for third and Hayden finished second with the top three finishing within 0.2 seconds.
In the end, Shahan emerged the winner with a four-point lead over the rest owing to a consistent performance during the weekend.
