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ndonesian karting driver Senna Noor had to abandon his hope of an automatic slot in the final round at the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Final after a poor performance in two qualifying heats at Kartodromo Internacional Lucas Guerrero in Valencia on Friday.

However, the driver for Kratingdaeng Riser Shadaff Motorsport team still harbored hopes for qualification through a second chance race, held later on the day.

'€œIt'€™s impossible to reach the final automatically. We are hopeful that I can get in through the second chance race,'€ Senna told The Jakarta Post while waiting for the third heat of qualifications.

After completing two qualification heats on Thursday, Senna was placed 56th among 72 participants from 50 countries in the prestigious DD2 class.

The 72 racers were split into Group A, B, C and D. Senna, who was in Group D, crashed out early in the first heat, which also included racers from Group C.

The top 28 drivers in the final standings advance to the final automatically. The 10 last drivers are automatically eliminated, while the rest of the drivers are given a second chance with six successful participants making it to the finals.

Starting from 28th on the grid, Senna, who qualified for Valencia after winning this year'€™s Asian championship, clawed his way up to 16th when he tangled with another driver in the first of eight laps.

In the second heat, which involved racers from Group D and B, Senna could only finish in 26th position.

'€œThere were too many collisions on the track, which interfered with my speed. I was once in place to overtake the racers in front of me when they bumped into each other and I was forced to go wide on the grass to avoid them. That caused me to lose a lot of time,'€ Senna said.

Sean Babington of the US topped the standings, followed by Ferenc Kancsar of Hungary and Javier Radelas of Spain.

Team manager Ersaputra Rekardianto put Senna'€™s poor run down to the cold weather and a lack of time for track adjustment.

'€œIt slowed the engine from heating up. Senna also had little time in practices to adjust to the track,'€ he said.

The Kartodromo racing circuit is located around 30 kilometers west of the city.

The Indonesian team arrived in Valencia last Saturday and tried the track later that day. After another track trial on Sunday, Senna and other participants had an unofficial practice on Tuesday, followed by an official practice on Wednesday.

Team Principal Bunjamin Noor, who is not with the travelling entourage, previously said that he would simply be content for Senna to finish in the top twenty in the standings.

The 15th edition of the Grand Finals features four classes with a total of 288 participants.

The other three classes are junior, senior and masters categories, in each of which Indonesia also has a representative.

The other Indonesian drivers showed no better than Senna after two qualifying heats, with Christian Silvano (senior) in 68th place, David Sitanala (junior) in 60th place and Amir Mahfud (masters) in 69th place.