MONDAY PRACTICE
T
eam UAE’s youngest driver Keanu Al
Azhari made the biggest impact, during the
first day of free practice for the Rotax MAX
Challenge 2017 Grand Finals, on Monday.
After a morning session which allowed drivers
to run-in their engines and tweak setups, in the
afternoon drivers started to show their true pace
and benchmark times set across the classes.
Dubai schoolboy Al Azhari, one of the
youngest in the Micro MAX field of 36 drivers,
impressed with his cool and controlled
temperament, which when coupled to his smooth
driving and speed was enough to see him
emerge fastest in his class on the day with a best
time of 1:09.550, which was 0.160 of a second
faster than his closest rival - the top 24 drivers all
within a second.
Keanu is the son of multiple UAE motorsport
champion Karim Al Azhari who was on hand to
watch his son in action. He sported one of the
biggest smiles in the paddock at the end of the
first day of track action.
Several of the other Team UAE drivers were
in the top twenty, while the others aclimatised to
the event and were dialing themselves in as there
was still another day of practice to fine tune and
become familiar with the challenging track.
Guy Sheffield summed up the first day: “We
were all very proud of Keanu, the smallest guy in
our team made the biggest impression. He is also
one of the youngest drivers in a very competitive
Micro MAX field.”
“Our other drivers were out there trying to find
the sweet spot and will use tomorrow (Tuesday)
to further tweak their setups for qualifying. I am
confident we will see a number of Team UAE
drivers in the top ten when it matters.”