SEPANG: Daniel Cao of China was the big winner in the opening round of the FIA Formula 4 Southeast Asia Championship (F4 SEA) season but it was Malaysia's Nazim Azman who stole the limelight at the Sepang Circuit today.
Cao won three of the five races held over three days and also finished second and fourth in the two other races to be crowned overall winner of the Sepang round with nine points.
F4 SEA consists of five rounds with lower points awarded to drivers who rank higher in races.
India's Nayan Chatterjee was second with 17 points after finishing third in three races, second in one and sixth in the opening race.
Nazim, who had a slow start to the weekend, won the fifth and final race of the weekend having earlier placed third in Race Four. He placed third overall with 19 points.
"It was an emotional victory. We are one of the support races for the final Petronas Malaysia Formula One Grand Prix and to win on my home track was amazing,” said Nazim, who pumped his fists to acknowledge the crowd as he was coming into the final straight.
"I couldn’t help it. I knew I had the race and celebrated a little earlier than I should have.
"I am so happy to have won my first race in F4 and even happier it happened in Malaysia."
Nazim clinched victory in the fifth race in a time of 18 minutes and 9.016 seconds while Shepherd (18:10.825s) and Nayan (18:11.681s) completed the podium.
Following the Malaysian leg, F4 SEA will move to Clark International Speedway in the Philippines (Oct 20-22), Sentul International Circuit in Indonesia (Nov 24-26), Buriram International Circuit in Thailand (Jan 12-14) with the finale being held in Sepang on Feb 9-11 next year.