Heading into the opening seven-lap event, championship leader Stephen Kellogg had captured pole position during Friday’s qualifying, but stewards decided to demote him to the back of the grid for not adhering to Parc Ferme procedure after qualifying.
Raed Himmo was promoted to pole and Birkin was beside him on the front row.
Kellogg did well to fight back early on and was able to make his way to the front, with only Birkin in his way. The race winner would not make any mistakes however and was quick enough in his Integra to clinch the victory.
Birkin had a winning time of 18m 04.862s. Kellog, driving a Honda CIVIC, was 4.252s behind as the runner-up, which clinched him enough points to officially secure the season title. Salah Salahuddin, also in a CIVIC, completed the podium placers 7.256s off the pace in third place. Salahuddin was the early race leader.
Abdulrahman Ghuloom (+9.926s), another CIVIC driver, finished in fourth; Alex Longden (+22.968s) in a BMW 3 Series was fifth; Hussain Karimi (+56.442s) in a Honda CRX sixth; and Ahmed Kuzbar (+89.360s) in a Ford Focus 2.0 was seventh. Himmo did not compete.
In race two, Salahuddin came charging off the grid as the lights went out to take the early lead once more. He almost lost control of his vehicle but managed to just keep it on the track. He held on to his advantage around the first turn with Himmo and Birkin behind, and kept at it for the race’s early stages.
But car trouble eventually forced Salahuddin out; his hopes of claiming a victory literally going up in smoke.
It was then a battle between Himmo and Birkin in the race’s closing stages, and on the final lap Himmo’s brakes locked as he led Birkin round a turn. Himmo went slightly off the track and Birkin found his way through.
He held on to the lead until the finish and claimed the win in 18m 05.503s. Himmo was 7.125s behind while Ghuloom took third place 21.481s back.
Longden (+24.522s) was fourth and Karimi (+58.866s) fifth as the race’s other finishers.
Caterham Racing concluded a fortnight in Bahrain this afternoon in the GP2 sprint race held at the BIC in Sakhir.
From P6 on the grid the team’s Dutchman Giedo van der Garde was fighting for third position when an incident at turn one sent him spinning in a cloud of dust. He managed to gain control and race on from the back of the field but sadly hopes of another podium finish were dashed and he finished the 23-lap race P19. Rodolfo Gonzalez avoided the chaos at the first corner to gain several positions and drove a smooth race dicing amongst the mid-fielders to finish p15 at the chequered flag.
Next Event: Barcelona GP, Spain 11th – 13th May