Specials Eight Days in Portugal | Page 32

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.”