Asian Motor Sports

Uwe Alzen dominated the second Speedcar Series round at Sentul, Indonesia Sunday.

The German started fourth on the grid but fought his way ahead of Nicolas Navarro, touring car guest star Klaus Ludwig, and local favorite and pole-sitter Ananda Mikola to assume the lead on the eighth lap.

Alzen built himself a comfortable lead and controlled the race from there, leaving Mikola and the rest to fight over second place.

“I’m delighted to win the race,” said Alzen, “but it’s very hard work. It’s very hot in the car and 45 minutes is a long time. Malaysia is going to be very tough as well.”

Frenchman David Terrien was Mikola’s closest challenger in the early stages, but he fell away as Jean Alesi made a spirited charge through the field. The former Ferrari grand prix driver started down in eighth place, but he stormed relentlessly past car after car until he arrived on Mikola’s tail in the dying moments of the race.

The large home crowd cheered on Indonesian local Mikola, but it was to no avail as Alesi dived ahead of him with less than two minutes remaining and added a second place to the win he scored yesterday.

Terrien held on to fourth place, ahead of a race-long battle for fifth that was eventually won by Mattias Lauda, ahead of Ludwig and Johnny Herbert.

Indonesian Moreno Soeprapto suffered a tyre puncture at the race today putting him out of the running, much to the disappointment of the grandstands filled to their capacity with supporters. The crowd was ecstatic to have the other local hero Ananda Mikola take the podium though.

The points classification at the end of Round 2 is as follows:

1. Jean Alesi, 18 points
2. Uwe Alzen, 14 points
3. Mathias Lauda, 12 points
4. David Terrien, 10 points
5. Johnny Herbert, 8 points
6. Ananda Mikola, 7 points
7. Klaus Ludwig, 5 points
8. Nicolas Navarro, 3 points
9. Ukyo Katayama, 1 point

Speedcar Series will now move on to the next round on the Sepang International Circuit as the support race to the Malaysian Formula One Grand Prix on the 22nd and 23rd of March, 2008.

Associated Press Speedcar Slide Show