Bahraini racing driver and musician
Hamad Al Fardan
(
Arabic
:
???? ??????
; born June 29, 1987, in
Manama
), is a
Bahraini
racing driver and musician. He is the first Bahraini to drive at
GP2 Series
level.
Racing career
[
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]
Formula BMW
[
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]
Al Fardan is the son of
rally
driver
Ahmed Al Fardan
.
[1]
His first experience of
formula racing
came in 2004, when he drove in the
Formula BMW Asia
series. In 2005, he undertook a full season in the championship with the
Malaysian
team
Meritus
and finished third overall. He also raced in the
Formula BMW World Final
, finishing in eighteenth position. For 2006, he returned to the series for two races only due to commitments in other championships, winning both of them.
Formula Renault
[
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]
Al Fardan competed in the
Formula Asia V6 Renault
championship in
2006
, finishing the championship in sixth place with one win despite missing the last four races of the season. He again raced for the Meritus team. He returned to the series for
2009
and won the opening four races before the remainder of the season was cancelled, leaving him champion by default.
Toyota Racing Series
[
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]
Al Fardan also drove in the
New Zealand
-based
Toyota Racing Series
for 2006, again employed by Meritus. Scoring one race victory, the
New Zealand Grand Prix
, he finished thirteenth in the championship. He remained in the formula for 2007, although he switched teams to
Mark Petch Motorsport
. In this year he won two races and moved up to eleventh place in the championship. It was a hectic season for Al Fardan, as he also competed in
British Formula 3
on the other side of the world.
Formula Three
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]
Al Fardan moved to the National Class of the
British Formula 3 Championship
for
2007
(in addition to his TRS commitments), where he established himself as a frontrunner in the series.
[2]
He finished third in the championship for the
Performance Racing
team, despite not winning a race.
Over the winter of 2007?08, he moved to the
Asian Formula Three Championship
, driving for a national team sponsored by the Arabian bank
Gulf House Finance
. He won both rounds of the season-opener at the
Sepang
circuit in Malaysia,
[3]
[4]
and two further races, but then accused the team of fastest man,
Frederic Vervisch
, of cheating. He declined to make a protest preferring to walk away.
[5]
He finished fourth in the championship. Following his performance in 2007,
Toyota F1
test driver
Kamui Kobayashi
tipped him to become the first
Middle Eastern
driver to make it to
Formula One
.
[1]
Al Fardan moved to the
German
ATS Formel 3 Cup
for 2008, where he was placed eleventh in the final standings, although his season was disrupted by injury.
[6]
GP2 Series
[
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]
Al Fardan signed for the
iSport International
team to compete in the
2008?09 GP2 Asia Series season
, becoming the first Bahraini and
Arabian
driver to race at this level. His backing from
Gulf Finance House
also meant that the team changed its name to GFH Team iSport for the duration of the championship.
[7]
He finished 20th in the championship standings, scoring two points. He has not raced since, despite being linked to a 2010 Auto GP drive with DAMS.
Racing record
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Career summary
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Complete GP2 Asia Series results
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]
(
key
) (Races in
bold
indicate pole position) (Races in
italics
indicate fastest lap)
References
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]
External links
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]