King unable to rise to the Challenge at MRF season finale

King travelled to India sitting five points clear of chief title rival Conor Daly - a GP3 Series and Indy Lights race-winner and son of former F1 driver Derek Daly.

However, a fourth and a third for King on the opening day left him behind the American who picked up a sixth and a first, benefiting from a couple of incidents further up the order in the opening race to claim pole for the second.

The following day, King struck the first blow by qualifying second, six places clear of Daly.

Twice snatching the initiative off the line only to twice see the first race red-flagged for collisions, the 18-year-old McLaren Autosport Award finalist maturely kept his composure, and when the action belatedly got underway for real, he sprinted away to a seamless triumph - his fourth from eight outings over the course of the campaign.

Frustratingly, however, the elimination of several contenders in the various start-line mêlées meant Daly inherited three places and fifth position earned him a front row starting slot for the decider, with King down in sixth.

Taking the outside line on the first corner, the Stoneleigh-based driver slid wide on the dusty track  and found himself at the rear of the field.

He recovered to fifth but he again suffered a stroke of misfortune when the driver in front of him broke down.

“I was tucked underneath his rear wing,” said King “I had nowhere to go and ran into the back of him. “Although there was no real damage to my car, the delay dropped me to eighth.”

Regaining one place by the time the flag fell, King’s gutsy effort was not quite enough, as he found himself pipped to the laurels by five points.

“I can’t be too downcast at the end of the day,” he said. “And if I had completed the full season, I’d like to think I would have had the title wrapped up before the last race.

“I did feel the reverse grid format was a little unfair as it punishes you for being fast in qualifying and race one, but Conor drove well all season, too, so congratulations to him on his success.

“Aside from the small mistake in Sunday’s second race in Chennai, I’m very happy with my own performance after consistently proving myself to be the quickest driver in the field.

“It was naturally disappointing not to be able to retain my title, but I take a lot of encouragement from the experience and I think I can come away from it with my head held high.”