Rajiv finishes 15th, bags 2 points for India

BURIRAM: It turned out to be a mixed day for IDEMITSU Honda Racing India team. While Rajiv Sethu finished in the top 15 in the morning qualifier, the Chennai rider made a good recovery in afternoon's race 1, finishing 14th and adding two more points to the only Indian team's kitty in the prestigious Asian Road Race Championship here at Chang International Circuit on Saturday.
The other Indian rider Senthil Kumar crashed out of the race in lap 1 while trying to negotiate with an aggressive last turn before overtaking seven riders in the process.
In an intense battle in the morning qualifier, top 20 Asian riders fought in a tight 2-second gap for the title race. Riding with middle bunch in the first half of the qualifier, Rajiv was initially stuck in the1:55 seconds lap time but breached into 1:54 seconds mark to finally qualify 16th with best lap time of 1:54:737, only 2.185 seconds off the Thai female lead rider Muklada who clocked 1:52:552.
Rajiv looked determined to win points for India in the afternoon AP250 race 1 and gained two positions to 14th in lap 1 itself.