Team UAE’s Robinson finishes among top five at RMC Grand Finals

Lachlan Robinson emerged as the star performer for Team UAE in the 2019 Rotax MAX Challenge (RMC) Grand Final at Circuito Internationale di Napoli in Sarno on Saturday.

After a mass parade of the 360 drivers from 60 countries, it was down to business at a race circuit that has hosted some of the sport’s biggest names including Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, Michael Schumacher and Jean Alesi.

After the colourful formalities, six back-to-back finals took place for the various categories in the series.

Robinson, who was among the pace-setters all week, lined up 15th in among the top 36 Senior MAX drivers in the world.

The Dubai based schoolboy rose to the occasion as he proceeded to deliver an inspired drive, arguably the best of his career, to scythe his way through the field to finish fifth, the top 5 covered by less than 1 second at the chequered flag.

Robinson said: “It was a tough race but we had good pace and managed to make our way to the front. In the end, I ran out of laps, but I am very happy to make up so many places.”

Also in action on the day was Kyle Kumaran who impressed all week as he came to grips with unfamiliar equipment in his first appearance at the RMC finals.

In the DD2 Final, he raised his game impressively to climb from 24th on the grid to 18th when he crossed the finish line.

Georgie Zouein made it into the Junior MAX Grand Finals but was always up against it from 27th on the grid.

He was involved in a melee which bent his steering column which dropped him to the wrong end of the field where he remained to finish 34th out of 36 drivers.

In the Mini MAX class, Harry Hannam started from the back of the grid and, in the end, managed to make up six places to finish 30th.

Micro MAX driver Adam Al Azhari started in 12th but dropped back in the opening exchanges before fighting back to finish 12th in a pack of around a dozen drivers chasing the leaders.

Al Ain Raceway Club director Guy Sheffield commented: “A fantastic performance by Lachlan who has absolutely earned the right to be mentioned alongside the best in the world! He has always had the speed but this year his mental toughness and race craft really shone through as he maintained patience and discipline all week, even in the wake of an incident in Qualifying Heat 3 which scuppered his Pre Final grid slot.

He deservedly enjoyed one of his best days in the sport.

“The common denominator among all our drivers this week was their fighting spirit. They scrapped hard all week and did us proud.”