India's young racing sensation, Armaan Ebrahim, who turned 19 on Saturday, won the first round of Formula Renault V6 championship at tricky Sepang track in Malaysia.

Chennai-born Armaan, who finished runner-up in the championship on his debut last year, drove a fantastic race and maintained a decent margin of nine seconds from his nearest rival. Earl Bamber of New Zealand [Images] and James Grunwell of England [Images] finished second and third respectively.

Considering his win in the opening race of the season as a great birthday gift, Armaan hoped that he would be able to get more financial support from sponsors to enable him to complete this season.

"I turn 19 today and this will be my last year as a teenager. It is a great win and I intend to make the most of it by getting quicker and better as a racing driver with every opportunity that I get," he said.

Having competed in GP2 this season on 'higher specs powerful vehicle,' Armaan put that experience to great effect in V6 series today despite problems in qualifying on the pole.

He was the quickest by a good margin in all seven test sessions but could only manage third place on the grid with a time of 59.8 seconds which was more than 6 tenths slower than his practice time this morning on old tyres.

However, Armaan put these problems behind him in the main race.

Taking the lead in the first corner after a rolling start, the Indian opened a gap of more than 10 secs over Bamber and then backed up the pace to win by nine seconds lead.

"Add to my problems, I was still braking too late in to the corners and I need to re-adjust my driving style to suit the V6 after the GP2 series this year", he said.