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Author: David Bodapati
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Resilient Aishwarya Pissay stunning show silences her critics: Rally of Himalayas
Manali, 10 October 2021: Cross Country FIM World Cup Baja winner Aishwarya Pissay, who returned to the track courageously once again, after a serious accident that saw fractures on both her wrists, silenced all her critics with stunning resilience that made the connoisseur sit-up and take notice as she beat many of the male riders to come clinch a creditable fifth place and a second on the podium in her M2 Class of 250 to 450cc bikes in the inaugural FMSCI approved Rally of Himalayas, which concluded on Sunday.
For the record, the Rally which brings back the Himalayas as a terrain after Raide de Himalayas is off the Indian rally calendar saw about 100 participants, with about 30 taking part in the bikes category won by Aman Prabhakar Pawde in 2 hours, 55 minutes and 21.100 seconds over three days of tough terrain in Kullu-Manali region.
But it was the ladies who caught the eye, and as one focuses on the South Indian lady riders, INDIAinF1 makes a special mention of the young Tanika Shanbagh, who excelled beyond expectations to finish in the top-10 in her first attempt at the mother of all rallies and one of the highest-altitude rallies in the World. Tanika Shanbagh from Satara, the daughter of former rider Sanket Shanbagh, will be looking to consolidate her new-found love from here on and if nurtured well has a bright future.
The other only lady-pair of Dr Shivani Pruthvi and co-driver Deeksha Balakrishna too successfully completed the rally beating many a male driver in the Cars section.
Final unaudited (provisional) Classification:
(Legend: Position, Class, Competition number, rider name, time taken)
Overall Bikes: 1. M2 #103 Aman Prabhakar Pawde (2hrs, 55min, 21.100sec); 2. M4#135 Santosh Vishnoi ( 2:58:31.600); 3. M4#110 Mohit Thakur (03:02:11.600); 4. M5#120 Suhail Ahmed (03:04:50.800); 5. M2#103 Aishwarya Pissay (03:08:47.300); 6. M12#150 Nitish Bharadwaj (03:10:10.500); 7. M4#126 Saurabh Handa (03:10:31.400); 8. M1#101 Jatin Jain (03:11:03.800); 9. M9#132 Tanika Shanbag (03:11:49.500); 10. Invitational#176 Happy Verma (03:12:49.100);
Car results are awaited
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Valtteri Bottas first win of the season limits damage to Hamilton
Valtteri Bottas took his first win of the season at the Turkish Grand Prix as Max Verstappen finished P2 for a second consecutive race and his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez took his first podium since the French Grand Prix. Verstappen assumed championship lead as title rival Lewis Hamilton finished in P5. Bottas defended stoutly and his win reduced Verstappen’s probable lead over teammate Hamilton.
London, 12 October 2021: Valtteri Bottas won a race for the first time since last season’s Russian Grand Prix over a year ago as Max Verstappen finished P2 and teammate Sergio Perez made it a double podium for the Austrian squad. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished in P4 after running the majority of race in podium positions, ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton who started P11 due to a change in his internal combustion engine. Pierre Gasly crossed the line in P6 in the AlphaTauri, ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz- the Spaniard starting last as he ran a brand-new power unit. Esteban Ocon did a no-stop race to finish P10, behind Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.
Alfa Romeo duo of Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen finished P11 and P12 respectively, behind them were McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo in P13, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda in P14 and Williams’ George Russell in P15. Alpine’s Fernando Alonso suffered a first lap spin and could only recover to P16 ahead of the second Williams car of Nicholas Latifi. Sebastian Vettel was the only driver on the grid to try out slick tyres in the race as he finished in P18 ahead of the Haas duo of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin in P19 and P20 respectively.
It was a wet race day, much like last year. Bottas started on pole and had a clean getaway, in fact most of the field did so apart from Alonso and Gasly, the Frenchman tipping the Spaniard into a spin as the Alpine car dropped dead last. Later in the lap Alonso tagged Schumacher, spinning the rookie. Both Gasly and Alonso earned themselves a 5-second time penalty for their shenanigans.
Hamilton started out of place in P11 after receiving a power unit penalty. He made up two places early on with Tsunoda proving a bit tougher to overtake. By lap 8 he had moved past the Japanese driver too. Ahead, Bottas lead by around 2.5s from Verstappen who was ahead of Leclerc.
The track was drying as the rain had stopped, but it was not drying fast enough to justify putting on slick tyres as in these wet and greasy conditions the intermediate tyres would still be faster.
By now Hamilton had caught up to Perez and tried to overtake him on lap 35. But, a stern defense from the Mexican meant that Hamilton had to stay put behind the Red Bull car and also look after his own wearing intermediate tyres.
Verstappen was the first to pit of the leaders for another intermediate set of tyres. Race leader Bottas followed suit to cover the Dutchman. Meanwhile, the second Red Bull of Perez pitted on the same lap. This left Leclerc in the lead. Leclerc tried to go to the end on one set of inters but after locking up multiple times and being passed by Bottas, Ferrari decided to pit him emerging in P5 behind Hamilton who was yet to pit and Perez.
Hamilton had not pitted yet in a gamble that the track may dry out soon enough for slick tyres, but it was not to be. As him and Mercedes deliberated whether to make it to the end on a single set of intermediates, ultimately, he was called in on lap 51 as a precaution. Hamilton was evidently frustrated over team radio for losing a podium position and points to Verstappen.
In the end, the day belonged to Bottas who dominated the Turkish Grand Prix and took his first win of the season. Meanwhile, Red Bull got a double podium, boosting Perez’s confidence and Verstappen retaking the championship lead. It was a day of what could have been for Hamilton as strategy error left him down in P5.
Mercedes clearly had the dominant car this weekend in both qualifying and race pace. They locked out the front row and if not for strategic error by both Hamilton and Mercedes he could have finished the race on the podium. Red Bull struggled for pace this weekend, particularly the car suffering from a lot of understeer. A double podium is a good result given that they lacked pace to challenge Mercedes but still lost ground to them in the constructor’s championship owing to Bottas’ win.
Ferrari had the third fastest car especially in qualifying. They introduced a brand-newpower unit in the last race giving them a horsepower boost, clearly helping them in their qualifying pace. The Ferrari was even faster than Red Bull in the speed traps. They had best of the rest race pace too, with Leclerc running his own race, unchallenged by Perez for majority of the race while Sainz finished P8 from starting last. AlphaTauri showed good pace too, albeit unable to challenge Ferrari. Both cars reached Q3 with Gasly scoring points in the race and Tsunoda running in points position until he spun and dropped back in the field.
McLaren struggled to find pace in the MCL35M as Ricciardo was unable to make it out of Q1 and Norris did not have the pace to challenge the top 5 or Gasly in P6. Ricciardo was unable to follow Sainz through the field showing the struggles of McLaren at this particular track. Aston Martin showed decent pace to challenge for points and Stroll duly delivered on that. They tried a gamble of putting slick tyres on Vettel’s car but it did not work out as the track was too wet. Alpine had similar pace to Aston Martin as both teams had one car in Q3 and in points at the end of the race. Ocon made an audacious no-stop strategy work to get in the top 10 while Alonso was tagged by Gasly and spun to the back of the grid, killing his hopes for any points.
Alfa Romeo finished just outside the top 10 with Giovinazzi almost catching up to Ocon for the last points paying position. They had mediocre qualifying pace- which was in dry conditions- as neither cars were able to make it out of Q1. Williams’ points scoring streak of 4 in 5 races ended as neither Russell nor Latifi were able to challenge for the top 10 spots, lacking pace in general to do so. Haas’ Schumacher made it to Q2 for the second time, first time on legitimate pace giving the American squad confidence. They were unable to challenge for points in the race.
Saturday’s Qualifying results were:
P1: Lewis Hamilton- 44 (Mercedes) P2: Valtteri Bottas- 77 (Mercedes) P3: Max Verstappen- 33 (Red Bull) P4: Charles Leclerc- 16 (Ferrari) P5: Pierre Gasly- 10 (AlphaTauri) P6: Fernando Alonso- 14 (Alpine) P7: Sergio Perez- 11 (Red Bull) P8: Lando Norris- 4 (McLaren) P9: Lance Stroll- 18 (Aston Martin) P10: Yuki Tsunoda- 22 (AlphaTauri) P11: Sebastian Vettel- 5 (Aston Martin) P12: Esteban Ocon- 31 (Alpine) P13: George Russell- 63 (Williams) P14: Mick Schumacher- 47 (Haas) P15: Carlos Sainz- 55 (Ferrari) P16: Daniel Ricciardo- 3 (McLaren) P17: Nicholas Latifi- 6 (Williams) P18: Antonio Giovinazzi- 99 (Alfa Romeo) P19: Kimi Raikkonen- 7 (Alfa Romeo) P20: Nikita Mazepin- 9 (Haas) Note – Hamilton drops 10 grid places for taking on a new ICE after exceeding his allocation. Sainz and Ricciardo start from the back of the grid after taking on new PU components.
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Harith Noah successfully completes the tough SS4
Zagora, 12 October 2021: Ace Indian rider Harith Noah from Sherco TVS team, astride an 450RTR, continued to progress successfully in Rallye du Maroc as he finished the tough Stage 4 in the FIM Group 1, in the Moto-Rally World Championship upto 450cc bikes in 20th position on Tuesday. Noah took 15minutes penalty for a total time of 17 hours, 13 minutes and 20 seconds to complete the Selective Section (SS) about 2:26min behind leader Mathias Walkner.
The ace Indian from Kerala, who finished the Dakar 2021 successfully to become the highest ranked Indian in Dakar and only third to complete the toughest cross-country rally in the world, had injured himself in one of the stages where another CS Santosh met with a bad accident that took him months to recover. Unlike Santosh, Noah was off to training in a couple of months and overcame the COVID19 travel restrictions to arrive here early and start his first and only preparation for Dakar 2022. Thus his target at Rally of Morocco is to get into the groove, fine-tune his navigation and complete the course. Thus, he is on course and has come to the final phase of the six-day competition consisting of
No major sand sections on the menu for this fourth stage. While there were a few small ergs to cross, David Castera’s team were more focused on linking new tracks to historic Dakar pistes from times gone by. This was especially the case for last 50 kilometres of the track to Foum Zguid. As Ricky Brabec discovered to his cost, navigation played a central role in today’s result.
Watch sample video here. (This rider in the video is not Harith Noah.)
ROAD BOOK
Stage 4: A mix of old and new
Distances :
L1: 118 / SS: 367 / L2 : 61 – Total : 546 (Moto FIM / Auto FIA)
L1: 118 / SS: 337 / L2 : 75 – Total : 530 (Enduro Cup / Quad / SSV / Open)
ON TRACK
At yesterday evening’s briefing David Castera warned competitors to take care today with the navigation when coming across rally tracks from previous days. And inevitably it was the man who opened this morning, Ricky Brabec (Monster Energy Honda) who paid the highest price. His overall lead this morning of 10:27, has this evening been transformed into a 07:34 deficit. Ricky is of course still in with a chance, but not as big a one as teammate Pablo Quintanilla. Second overall this morning at 10:27, this evening the Chilean is just 37 seconds behind leader Matthias Walkner (Red Bull KTM Factory) and will start the last day third on the road just behind the ex-Dakar winner. The Austrian will also be fighting hard for the podium, while taking care of his world championship ambitions. Winning his first stage today on his Rallye du Maroc debut, the young Australian Daniel Sanders (Gas Gas Factory Racing) will also be pushing hard to keep his podium place, his chances possibly increased by the organisers decision to shorten tomorrow’s special from 291 km to 166. Slightly less suspense in Rally2 thanks to the domination of the category by the rookie American Mason Klein (BAS Dakar KTM) who celebrates his 20th birthday today. He again won the day 6:54 ahead of Bradley Cox (BAS Dakar KTM) with Benji Melot (Esprit KTM) third at 16:30.
In the cars, for the first time since the start of the rally, someone other than Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing) won a stage, with honours going to Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota Overdrive) and his co-driver Michael Orr. Third was Jakub Przygonski (X-Raid Mini) at 02:30. It means that Nasser will start second tomorrow, perfectly positioned to keep an eye on his closest rival and protect his 11:21 lead. In T3 the overall leader Cristina Gutierrez ran into transmission problems and pulled out of the special accompanied by her Red Bull Off-Road Junior teammate Seth Quintero. T3 victory on the stage went to Pavel Lebedev (Moscow Rally Team). In T4 no less than 7 SSVs between 12th and 18th place on today’s special separated by just over 4 minutes ! And it was the rookie Lithuanian Rokas Baciuska (South Racing) who won to take his first rally raid special, just 25 seconds ahead of teammate Michal Goczal.
RADIO BIVOUAC
Back in 2014 Vanessa Ruck got knocked off her bicycle and ended up having 7 operations to rebuild her shoulder and hip. Her initial goal was to ‘get better’ and ‘pain free’. Eventually she was forced into the realisation that she’d have to lower her expectations and learn to live with the pain. By her own admission ‘it’s been a rollercoaster’, both physically and mentally. In her search for tools to help her come to terms with her new reality motorcycling turned out to be one of the most useful distractions. Like many before her she initially started on road bikes before being seduced by the adrenaline rush of riding off-road. This summer she successfully completed the Iron class of the Romaniacs. Two weeks ago she completed her first desert race, the Qatar International Baja. This week she’s racing her first rally-raid…. Something else that has helped her come to grips with her life changing injuries is visiting schools and talking to the pupils alongside her Project Dakar teammate Tim Bradshaw. Together they have tried to pass on some of the strategies they have come up with to overcome adversity #becauseican.
STAT OF THE DAY : 6
Is the record number of victories on the Rally du Maroc… and it is held by a co-driver. Frenchman Mathieu Baumel has one more victory than his team-mate Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota Gazoo Racing). If Nasser can hope to equal this record tomorrow by winning his 6th crown in Morocco, Mathieu will inevitably receive his 7th. Unless the Gazoo Racing driver pushes him out of the cockpit before the finish line ! For Mathieu, who won in 2011 with Bernhard Ten Brinke (Mitsubishi), it will be the 10th anniversary of his first victory. Among the drivers, Nasser is the most capped in the Rallye du Maroc with 5 titles in a row from 2014 to 2018. Giniel De Villiers and Cyril Despres have won 4 times while Peterhansel, Schlesser and Coma have each won 3 times.
THE RALLY DU MAROC AND ME
Jakub Przygonski (X-Raid Mini)
When?
“Oh a long time ago – 2009. I was 25 years old.”
Where?
“Zagora.”
How?
“It was one of my first cross country rallies. When it is your first time in the desert it is a shock, the terrain, the road book, everything is new. But I really enjoyed it because there’s a lot of different types of terrain, stones, sand, camel grass. I was riding a KTM 690 in the Orlen Team but we had support from the factory. Before that I had been riding moto-x and enduro. In total I raced bikes for 16 years and I’ve been racing cars for 6 years.”
QUOTES
Pablo Quintanilla (Monster Energy Honda) : 3rd at 02:55 and 2nd overall at 00:37
“Today was a really good stage for me. I felt confident with my speed all day, really focused on the road book and didn’t make any mistakes. Every day the feeling is better. This is the first race I do in open desert with the bike. Now I have a good position for tomorrow and I’m feeling motivated.”
Ricky Brabec (Monster Energy Honda) : 17th at 20:19 and 4th overall at 07:34
“I opened more of less the whole day and I didn’t have any teammates close to me to help. We crossed many tracks from the last two days which made the navigation really tricky and I made two big errors. Now I’m 7 minutes down going into the last day. Hopefully the guys opening tomorrow will make a little mistake or go a little bit slow. Tomorrow we’re going to try and do our best and get on the podium.”
Daniel Sanders (Gas Gas Factory Racing) : 1st and 3rd overall at 05:46
“I started back in 14th but you still had to be really precise with the navigation and keep the mistakes to the minimum. When I could push I pushed. I’ll be opening tomorrow so a lot of pressure but I’m excited to see how it works out.”
Matthias Walkner (Red Bull KTM Factory) : 2nd at 00:36 and 1st overall
“Another super long day. I tried from the beginning to push really hard. The Rallye du Maroc is one of my favourite races. A really nice mix of navigation, some off-piste, some dunes, fast piste. Tomorrow is the show down and I’ll be happy if I can stay on the podium, make some good points (for the championship) and don’t take too many risks.”
Mathieu Baumel (Toyota Gazoo Racing) : 2nd at 1 :39 and 1st overall
“We didn’t want to open on the last day so this morning we started off gently. And then we made a small navigation error that cost us a minute or two. At 224 km we were able to work out the times and saw that Yazeed had pulled back almost 5 minutes and Kuba 2 so over the last part of the special we decided to up the pace a little. All in all perfect for tomorrow. The plan will be to come up to Yazeed’s dust and stay behind him.”
Yazeed Al Rajhi (Toyota Overdrive) : 1st and 2nd overall at 11:21
“Sure very happy. We win today’s stage. Lucky day for us, not any punctures not any problem and also Michael did a great job. When the car works well and everything work well we can win stages. We have the speed and we have the experience. Just need some luck.”
Jakub Przygonski (X-Raid Mini) : 3rd at 02:30 and 30th overall at 4h43:42
“It was good day. We caught Nasser in the middle of the stage and then drove with Nasser and Yazeed. Then a little in moto-x mode. It was quite a hard stage but we enjoyed it.”
Rokas Baciuska (South Racing) : 1st T3 and 17th overall at 2h56:03
“Actually I didn’t expect to win a stage here in Morocco. This is the first time I see the dunes. I come from Rallycross. Here it is really crazy, really close between the top 3 guys. You do 300 kms and you’re separated by 20 seconds. But we managed to get up there with them and we’re really happy. The plan for tomorrow is full attack.”
TOMORROW’S PROGRAMME
For logistical reasons the 291 km special initially scheduled for tomorrow has been cut to 166 kms.
Distances : L1: 142 / SS: 166 / L2 : 143 – Total : 412
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Roller-coaster drive for Advait Deodhar in penultimate round
Zolder, 10 October 2021: The only Indian in NASCAR races, Advait Deodhar had a roller-coaster of a weekend at the penultimate round of the Euro Nascar2 Championship at Circuit Zolder in Belgium on Saturday and Sunday.
Official Practice 1 : The Indian could not take part in the official practice due to a clutch problem.
Official Practice 2 : The Indian was running in P2 overall, but the session ended with a blown engine on his #56 Ford Mustang in the final minutes. “We are still not sure what caused it, but a piston rod punched a hole in the engine. The mechanics did a remarkable job at installing a new engine over night,” Deodhar said.
QUALIFYING – The Mumbai Yachtsman came 4th in the qualifying session. “It was a close qualifying and I managed to qualify on the second row of the grid for the first race of the weekend,” he added.
Race 1 : In Race 1 he came 4th. “I managed to have a few on-track battles and ended up bringing the car home in 4th, gaining valuable Championship points.”
Race 2 : However, in Race 2, he had to limp home in a heavily damaged car in P16. It was due to three dramatic on-track incidents. “I ended up with severe damage on the car and had to limp home in P16 in order to get points, rather than retiring the car,” he explained.
“I moved up to 4th in the Championship on Saturday and am now back down in 5th after Sunday’s result,” with double points for the last round, the championship is still open.
The final round takes place on the October 30 & 31at Circuit Vallelunga in Italy. “Still there is a lot left to be gained,” he grinned.
You can watch the race here.
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Rajini Krishnan bounces back, double for KY Ahamed
Chennai, 10 October 2021: Ace rider Rajini Krishnan (RACR Castrol Power Racing) came into his own to script a fine win while TVS Racing’s KY Ahamed completed a double as the third round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2021 concluded at the MMRT, here on Sunday.
Rajini Krishnan, 41, diced with yesterday’s Race-1 winner Hyderabad’s Rahil Shetty (Gusto Racing) and Deepak Ravikumar (TVS Racing) before winning the thrilling battle in the premier Prostock 301-400cc category with less than a second covering the trio. The win, his fourth of the season from six starts, helped Rajini (118 points) to maintain his top position in the championship table with Rahil 17 points adrift.
Later, local challenger Ahamed kept his nerves to record his second win of the weekend with team-mate and defending champion Jagan Kumar delivering a 1-2 finish for TVS Racing while Rajiv Sethu (Idemitsu Honda SK69 Racing) was third. The result could have been different as early leader, Deepak Ravikumar (TVS Racing) crashed heavily exiting the last corner in the fifth lap. The result notwithstanding, Jagan continues to head the points table with 126 points, followed by Ravikumar (85), Sethu (83) and Ahamed (77).
Rajini Krishnan leads the premier Prostock 301-400cc class (118 points) Photos Anand Philar One of the top rides of the day, however, was from Chennai collegian Alwin Sundar (AS Motorsports), who started P34 and won the Novice (Stock 165cc) race, his third of the season, as did Ryhana Bee (RACR Castrol Power Racing) in the Girls (Stock 165cc) category. Sundar is currently placed second in the championship in the Novice class with 103 points to leader Anfal Akdhar’s 113. Ryhana heads the Girls table with 75 points, well clear of Mumbai’s Jagruti Penkar of Sparks Racing (45).
Riding a Yamaha R3, Rajini Krishnan brought into play his vast experience to win a tight battle with Rahil Shetty, astride a KTM 390, as the two swapped leads over eight laps with third-placed Ravikumar in the mix.
The contest, at times, turned physical with Rajini and Rahil coming into contact, but both escaped any mishap. “It was a tough race. Rahil is extremely fast, like he was yesterday. I also had an eye on the championship points and didn’t want to make any mistakes like in the previous round when I crashed,” said Rajini.
KY Ahamed (No.33) powering his way to victory in the Prostock 165cc Open race (Oct 10) The Prostock 165cc Open race was full of suspense as to the eventual outcome, though TVS Racing appeared heading towards another podium sweep like on Saturday. The quartet of Ravikumar, Ahamed, Jagan Kumar and Rajiv Sethu was bunched tight at the front with the TVS trio leading by turns.
However, Ravikumar tragically crashed when the front tyre washed away and he was fortunate to fall outside the track on the grass allowing Ahamed, Jagan and Sethu, besides rest of the field to zip through.
The results (Provisional):
National Championship – Prostock 301-400cc Open (Race-2, 8 laps): 1. Rajini Krishnan (RACR Castrol Power, Chennnai,) (15mins, 04.136secs); 2. Rahil Shetty (Gusto Racing, Hyderabad) (15:04.561); 3. Deepak Ravikumar (TVS Racing, Chennai) (15:04.719).
Prostock 165cc Open (Race-2, 8 laps): 1. KY Ahamed (TVS Racing) (15:40.885); 2. Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) (15:41.020); 3. Rajiv Sethu (Idemitsu Honda SK69 Racing) (15:41.146).
Novice (Stock 165cc) Race-2 (6 laps): 1. Alwin Sundar (AS Motorsports, Chennai) (13:05.747); 2. Sarvesh Balappa (Sparks Racing, Hubballi) (13:06.309); 3. Allwin Xavier (Sparks Racing, Thrissur) (13:06.342).
Girls (Stock 165cc, 5 laps): 1. Ryhana Bee (RACR Castrol Power Racing, Chennai) (10:53.801); 2. Ann Jennifer (Sparks Racing, Chennai) (11:07.230); 3. Jagruti Penkar (Sparks Racing, Mumbai) (11:09.601).
One-Make Championship organised by MMSC:
Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup – NSF 250R (Race-2, 8 laps): 1. Sarthak Chavan (Pune) (14:46.889); 2. Kavin Quintal (Chennai) (14:53.056); 3. Mohsin Paramban (Malappuram) (15:02.291).
Honda Novice (CBR 150) Race-2 (6 laps): 1. Prakash Kamat (Bokar Steel City) (13:10.827); 2. Ikshan Shanbhag (Satara) (13:13.736); 3. Theopaul Leander (Chennai) (13:26.125).
Honda Hornet 2.0 (Race-2, 6 laps): 1. Ullas Santrupt Nanda (Chennai) (13:20.440); 2. Alwin Sundar (Chennai) (13:20.867); 3. Prabhu V (Chennai) (13:21.107).
TVS Open (Apache RR 310) Race-1 (6 laps): 1. Jagadeesh N (Bengaluru) (11:47.095); 2. Aditya Rao I (Bengaluru) (11:48.755); 3. Navaneeth Kumar S (Puducherry) (11:50.591). Race-2: 1. Jagadeesh N (11:46.122); 2. Venkat Prabhu (Chennai) (11:49.456); 3. Yashas RL (Bengauru) (11:49.969).
TVS Rookie (Apache RTR 200) Race-2 (6 laps): 1. Shreyas Hareesh (Bengaluru) (12:53.089); 2. Jinendra Kiran Sangave (Kolhapur) (12:53.628); 3. Vignesh Goud (Hyderabad) (12:53.660).
TVS Media (Apache RTR 200) (5 laps): 1. Soham Thakur (Mumbai) (11:37.219); 2. Manaal Mahatme (Mumbai) (11:47.104); 3. Ajinkya Lad (Mumbai) (12:04.009).
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Hamilton quickest but Bottas will start on Pole; Max on P2
Istanbul, 9 October 2021: Lewis Hamilton set the fastest lap of Qualifying for the 2021 FIA Formula 1 Turkish Grand Prix, but it’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas who will claim pole position for the race after Hamilton takes a 10-place grid penalty for taking a fourth ICE of the year. Hamilton’s chief title rival Max Verstappen will start alongside Bottas on the front row after qualifying third.
Ahead of Q1 the weather forecast predicted rain early in the opening session and desperate to bank an early dry tyre time, drivers formed a long queue at the pit exit in the final minutes before the green lights started the session.
The expected rain began to fall close to five minutes into the session but never with the steadiness predicted and as a result the 18-minute proved to be frantic as drivers pushed to get the best from their soft tyres, balancing extended running in case of running with tyre wear and the risk of pitting for new rubber.
In the end it was Hamilton who topped the opening session, with the Briton beating Verstappen who required a late flyer to climb from P12 to P2 thanks to a lap of 1:24.592. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly took third place ahead of the second Red Bull of Sergio Pérez and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
In the crucial final moments it was Daniel Ricciardo who lost out. The McLaren driver looked less than comfortable in the session but appeared to be safe when the chequered flag was flown. However, despite a guaranteed back of the grid start due to PU penalties, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz put in a full session, completing 12 laps, and his final flyer bounced Ricciardo out of the session in P16 along with Nicholas Latifi of Williams, Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen and Haas’ Nikita Mazepin.
In the second segment, the bulk of the field opted for medium tyres, looking to start the race on that compound. Hamilton was again to the fore with the Mercedes driver posting a best time of 1:23.082. Bottas again took second place, almost half a second behind his team-mate, while Verstappen was again third with a lap of 1:23.732. Gasly continued to impress with fourth place ahead of Leclerc, while Alpine’s Fernando Alonso also caught the eye with fifth place.
Eliminated at the end of the middle segment were Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, Williams’ George Russell, Haas’ Mick Schumacher and Sainz who completed just a single out lap in Q2.
In the first runs of Q3, Hamilton was first on track, a full five minutes before the end of the session, with the Briton targeting multiple flying laps as he sought to minimise the damage caused by his impending penalty.
He found most time on his second flier to take P1 with a time of 1m22.868. Bottas was 0.005s ahead of Hamilton by the end of the second sector, but he lost time in the final third and wound up 0.13s behind his team-mate. Verstappen also lost time in the final corners and finished 0.328s down on Hamilton’s benchmark time.
Leclerc delievered a fine final flyer to rise to fourth place a little over five hundredths of a second ahead of Gasly. Alonso continued his good form with sixth place ahead of Perez. Eighth place in qualifying went to McLaren’s Lando Norris with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll ninth ahead of the AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda.
2021 FIA Formula 1 Turkish Grand Prix – Qualifying
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:22.868 8 231.896
2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:22.998 0.130 0.157 6 231.533
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda 1:23.196 0.328 0.396 6 230.982
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:23.265 0.397 0.479 8 230.790
5 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Honda 1:23.326 0.458 0.553 6 230.621
6 Fernando Alonso Alpine/Renault 1:23.477 0.609 0.735 6 230.204
7 Sergio Pérez Red Bull/Honda 1:23.706 0.838 1.011 6 229.574
8 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:23.954 1.086 1.311 6 228.896
9 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:24.305 1.437 1.734 6 227.943
10 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri/Honda 1:24.368 1.500 1.810 6 227.773
11 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:24.795 1.713 2.062 9 226.626
12 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 1:24.842 1.760 2.118 8 226.501
13 George Russell Williams/Mercedes 1:25.007 1.925 2.317 8 226.061
14 Mick Schumacher Haas/Ferrari 1:25.200 2.118 2.549 8 225.549
15 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1
16 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren/Mercedes 1:25.881 1.296 1.532 10 223.760
17 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 1:26.086 1.501 1.775 10 223.227
18 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:26.430 1.845 2.181 11 222.339
19 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:27.525 2.940 3.476 11 219.557
20 Nikita Mazepin Haas/Ferrari 1:28.449 3.864 4.568 10 217.264 -
Historic DTM silver for Arjun Maini
Nuremberg, 9 October 2021: Ace Indian racing star Arjun Maini of Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed won his maiden DTM podium with silver in the Saturday’s race. Thus, he became the first Indian on a DTM podium and accolades poured in for the Indian star, who embraced this form of motorsports at the beginning of the season by becoming the first Indian to take part in DTM series.
Watch the Video here, courtesy DTM.
Watch Arjun Maini’s short interview here, courtesy DTM.
The Omega Seiki and J.K.Tyre backed driver was justly rewarded for the pace he has shown throughout the season with the Indian managing to hold off a strong challenge from championship leader Liam Lawson towards the end of the race.
As expected going into the weekend, Maini was able to make full use of his prior knowledge of the Norisring race circuit from his Formula 3 days. The Indian finished second in Free Practice 2 before qualifying fourth for the weekend’s first race. While the Indian was overtaken by Mercedes stablemate Maximillian Gotz at the start, he managed to keep out of major trouble, despite banging wheels with Lawson and mildly damaging his front right suspension.
It took Arjun many laps to get used to the damage and yet retain a reasonable pace.
A cleanly executed pitstop from the GetSpeed racing team further aided the Indian’s effort, with Maini leapfrogging Lawson and settling in behind Gotz, a position he would go on to maintain for the remainder of the race.
“I’m absolutely delighted with the result,” a clearly jubilant Maini stated.
“We’ve worked so hard throughout the year and while our qualifying pace has been good, we’ve never been able to stitch together a clean race. Today was just one of those days where everything came together, our pace was good and GetSpeed executed a well-judged pitstop.
“We have one more race to go tomorrow so I won’t be celebrating too much, but I have to say it feels good to finally achieve my aim for the season.”
The result also marked GetSpeed’s first podium in the championship, the team made their DTM debut this season with Maini and the pair have performed admirably over the course of the season given their relative lack of experience.Earlier, in DTM Norisring powered by BWT, the ultimate showdown is imminent on Sunday. With his victory on Saturday, Maximilian Götz has made the three-way battle for the coveted DTM title even more thrilling. With the Mercedes-AMG run by the HRT team, the driver from Uffenheim scored his second win of the season. Points’ leader Liam Lawson secured third place with the Red Bull Ferrari behind Indian Arjun Maini with the GetSpeed Mercedes while Kelvin van der Linde finished fourth with the ABT Audi at the 2.3 kilometres long Norisring.
With this thrilling outcome of the race, Lawson, now leading with a total of 224 points, extended his margin to 18 points over Kelvin van der Linde (206), but Götz (205) reduced his gap to only one point to van der Linde and 19 to Lawson. In total, there are still 28 points up for grabs, three in qualifying and 25 in the deciding race on Sunday. Arjun Maini, who was plagued by mechanical failures and engine issues earlier, is 13th in the standings with 40 points.
Arjun Maini with his Silver at DTM Series on Saturday. Photo courtesy Twitter @ArjunMaini The Bengaluru-born Maini, began the week-end on a confident note posting a 49.842 sec in Free Practice on to finish 7th , just 0.256 second off the pace of P1, and put on a good 42 laps with only Esteban Muth putting more laps, and derived good data to set up the car. He did another 43 laps in Free Practice 2 and was the second quickest posting a time of 49.405, missing the top entry on the timesheets by just 0.030sec. He continued the good run improving the time below 49s but could only get a P4 on the start grid for the Saturday race as the top-8 were all in 1/100th of a second. Maini P4 is just 0.007off the pole man as he clocked 48.938. The Indian bagged 18 points to take his tally to a decent 40 points despite all the hiccups with the mechanical issues.
“What an incredible race! It’s a big day for @ArjunMaini, the first Indian on a DTM podium,” tweeted Mercedes AMG official handle with a hashtag #DTM2021″ and tagged Maini. “Thank you guys! The care was mega,” was the Indian star’s reply.
“Yes, we did it. P2. I am so happy to get my first podium in DTM (series) here in Norisring and also the first podium for India,” Maini said after the race and thanked all his supporters, his team Mercedes AMG and GetSpeed,for the car, on the Social Media. `”Raring to go for tomorrow’s race,” he quipped.
THE LONG WAIT IS OVER: Arjun Maini gets his first chance to spray champagne and celebrate at DTM Series on Saturday after winning a Silver.
The season’s final qualifying session and race can be streamed on AutoCar India’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/autocarindia1) with Qualifying flagging off at 1 pm IST with the race starting at 5 pm IST. -
Hyderabad’s Rahil Shetty trumps quality field; Ahamed leads TVS podium sweep
Chennai, 9 October 2021: Hyderabad’s Rahil Pillari Shetty of Gusto Racing and local ace KY Ahamed of TVS Racing scored resounding victories in the two premier Pro-Stock categories on an action-packed day in the third round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2021, at the MMRT, here on Saturday.
The 23-year old Rahil Shetty marked his comeback after a season’s absence with a superb win in the Prostock 301-400cc category ahead of veteran Rajini Krishnan (RACR Castrol Power Racing), the championship leader in this category, and TVS Racing’s Deepak Ravikumar.
Ahamed registered his first win of the season in this category as he finished in front of team-mates Deepak Ravikumar and defending champion Jagan Kumar for a podium sweep for TVS Racing.
Earlier, Rockstar Racing’s Anfal Akdhar from Thrissur, registered his second win of the season in the Novice (Stock 165cc) category that had a massive grid of 38 riders.
Rahil, who missed the 2020 season due to family business commitments, rode a near flawless race on a KTM 390 starting from his maiden pole position in this category to beat a high-quality field.
Except for running wide in the penultimate lap to drop to second, Rahil dictated the pace for much of the six-lap race. Rahil, who had held out promise as a teenager, made a decisive pass on Rajini Krishnan, who had started from P6, at Turn-9 on the last lap for a deserving win.
Later, Ahamed, who had lost the championship to Jagan Kumar last season by just one point, survived a contact with pole-sitter Deepak Ravikumar on the very first lap, but staged a remarkable recovery to move to the front of the pack. Thereafter, Ahamed held off Ravikumar and Jagan for a fine win.
Idemitsu Honda SK69 Racing’s Rajiv Sethu, starting from P3 following this morning’s qualifying session, yielded ground and lost a close battle to Jagan to finish fourth.
Earlier, in a battle between two riders from Thrissur in the Novice (Stock 165cc) category, Anfal Akdhar snatched a thrilling, last gasp win over Allwin Xavier (Sparks Racing) with just 500th of a second separating the two on the finish line after trailing the leader for much of the six-lapper. Finishing some four seconds behind the pair was Hubballi’s Sarvesh Balappa (Sparks Racing).
Starting from P4 on the 38-bike grid, Akdhar cut his way through to tuck in behind pole-sitter Alwin Sundar (AS Motorsports) before moving to the front. On the last lap, the two made contact and Sundar slammed into the tyre barrier while Akdhar carried on, but his bike lost the drive. Xavier then gave a hot chase to Akdhar who held his nerve to win the race.
The results (Provisional – 6 laps unless mentioned):
National Championship – Prostock 301-400cc Open (Race-1): 1. Rahil Shetty (Gusto Racing, Hyderabad) (11mins, 18.000secs); 2. Rajini Krishnan (RACR Castrol Power Racing, Chennai) (11:18.246); 3. Deepak Ravikumar (TVS Racing) (11:18.340).
Prostock 165cc Open (Race-1): 1. Ahmed KY (TVS Racing, Chennai) (11:44.563); 2. Deepak Ravikumar (TVS Racing, Chennai) (11:44.697); 3. Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing, Chennai) (11:45.057).
Novice (Stock 165cc) Race-1: 1. Anfal Akdhar (Rockstar Racing, Thrissur) (13:03.524); 2. Allwin Xavier (Sparks Racing, Thrissur) (13:03.577); 3. Sarvesh Balappa (Sparks Racing, Hubballi) (13:07.658).
One-Make Championship organised by MMSC:
Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup – NSF 250R (Race-1): 1. Sarthak Chavan (Pune) (11:10.598); 2. Kevin Quintal (Chennai) (11:10.751); 3. Mohsin Peramban (Malappuram) (11:12.621).
Honda Novice (CBR 150): 1. Ikshan Shanbhag (Satara) (13:10.362); 2. Prakash Kamat (Bokaro Steel City) (13:10.401); 3. Theopaul Leander (Chennai) (13:19.412).
Honda Hornet 2.0 (Race-1): 1. Kevin Kannan (Chennai) (13:24.412); 2. Alwin Sundar (Chennai) (13:25.148); 3. Ullas Santrupt Nanda (Chennai) (13:25.661).
TVS Rookie (Apache RTR 200) Race-1: 1. Shreyas Hareesh (Bengaluru) (12:50.036); 2. Vignesh Goud (Hyderabad) (12:50.143); 3. Jinendra Kiran Sangave (Kolhapur) (12:50.220).
TVS Girls (Apache RTR 200, 5 laps): 1. Rakshita Dave (Chennai) (11:21.032); 2. Adlin Seles (Chennai) (11:21.720); 3. Aditi Krishnan (Bengaluru) (11:22.140).
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Harith Noah begins Dakar prep with Rallye du Maroc
Zagora, 7 October 2021: Five-time Indian National Champion, Harith Noah, who completed a tremendously successful Dakar 2021, will begin his preparations with the Rallye du Maroc for the next six days. The ace Indian champion, backed by TVS, has left India a fortnight ago to acclimatise and is raring to go. Last Dakar, his brilliant riding and navigation saw him become the first Indian to finish in the top-20 of the toughest cross-country rally in the world.
“I am back on the rally bike after a long and time and all-set in competition mode. Looking forward for a week of racing in Morocco. It has not been the best of places for me. Let us see how it goes this time around. It is basically to shrug off the lethargy and switch gears in preparation for the Dakar,” said India’s youngest and best finisher at Dakar, Harith Noah, talking to this website.
Action in the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies resumes this week with the fourth event in this year’s series, Rallye du Maroc scheduled to run from October 7 to 13. Based around a central bivouac in Zagora, south of Ouarzazate, the five legs take in a wide range of technical, fast and sandy tracks, as well as dunes, and will be the setting for world-class action on the 21st anniversary event running in the Draa River valley in the southeast of Morocco.
Denis Krotov and Konstantin Zhiltsov head an impressive entry list in their MINI John Cooper Works Rally. The Russians, leading the series with two second positions overall this season, are however in the thick of a battle with Nasser Al Attiyah and Matthieu Baumel who are just half a point adrift in the FIA World Cup standings. The Qatari/French Toyota pairing, returning to action in the series for the first since the opening round in Spain, are not only multiple champions in the discipline, but have an imposing history of five victories on Rallye du Maroc (2014-2018).
Lucio Alvarez and Armand Monleon hold joint third in the series alongside Mattias Ekström, the Argentine/Spanish pairing having claimed the win in Kazakhstan. Ekström and Emil Bergkvist will also be fighting hard for top honours and, on equal points and with just two separating them and Al Attiyah/Baumel, the Swedes will be looking to close the gap and better their third-place finish on Rally Kazakhstan in June. Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Michael Orr also return to action in their Toyota Hilux Overdrive. The Saudi Arabian/British duo have had a fine run on recent events in the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas, with Al-Rajhi leading the series with one round remaining. With a fifth place finish in Morocco in 2019, when the event last ran due to the pandemic, they need to capitalise on the momentum to reduce the eight point deficit to the lead in the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies.
The French crew of Ronan Chabot and Gilles Pillot have one fourth place finish to their names this season, and the Polish/German pairing of Jakub Przygonski and Timo Gottschalk join the contenders for the first time this year. They finished third on the event in 2019. A host of other top cross-country drivers also join the action in Morocco, including Paulo Ferreira, Sebastian Halpern and Mathieu Serradori, who so nearly claimed a maiden victory with the Century CR6 in Kazakhstan.
The 13-strong field of T3 contenders is headed by Cristina Gutierrez, who is co-driven by Frenchman François Cazalet. The Spanish OT3 driver is leading the category by 20.5 points after winning in Spain and Kazakhstan and her nearest rival, Fernando Alvarez, will again be pushing hard after claiming two second positions in T3 this season.
No fewer than 25 crews have entered in T4 with the top three series rivals going head to head. American, Austin Jones, leads the category with a 27.5 point advantage over Dutchman Kees Koolen, while Eugenio Amos trails by a further seven points. All three will be fielding Can-Am Mavericks with the chasing pack looking to topple their top results.
RALLY DATA
Total distance 2,686.80 km Selective section distance: 1,633.52 km (60.8 %) Number of selective sections: 6 LEADING ENTRIES
Denis Krotov/Konstantin Zhiltsov MINI John Cooper Works Rally Nasser Al Attiyah/Matthieu Baumel Toyota Hilux Overdrive Mattias Ekström/Emil Bergkvist MINI John Cooper Works Rally Yazeed Al Rajhi/Michael Orr Toyota Hilux Overdrive Ronan Chabot/Gilles Pillot Toyota Hilux Overdrive Jakub Przygonski/Timo Gottschalk MINI John Cooper Works Buggy Paulo Rui Ferreira/David Monteiro Toyota Hilux Overdrive Sebastian Halpern/Bernardo Graue MINI John Cooper Works Buggy Mathieu Serradori/Loic Minaudier Century CR6 Lucio Alvarez/Armand Monleon Toyota Hilux Overdrive RALLYE DU MAROC – TIMETABLE & MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES
Thursday October 7 Scrutineering From 09:00 hrs Pre-event press conference 19:00 hrs Friday October 8 – Leg 1/Section 1 Start of the rally/SS1A (10 km) 16:42 hrs Saturday October 9 – Leg 1/Section 2 Start of SS1B (288.24 kilometres) 11:33 hrs First car arrives bivouac 15:48 hrs Sunday October 10 – Leg 2 Start of SS2 (334.66 kilometres) 11:48 hrs First car arrives bivouac 17:05 hrs Monday October 11 – Leg 3 Start of SS3 (342 kilometres) 11:08 hrs First car arrives bivouac 18:01 hrs Tuesday October 12 – Leg 4 Start of SS4 (367.43 kilometres) 11:03 hrs First car arrives bivouac 16:57hrs Wednesday October 13 – Leg 5 Start of SS5 (291.19 kilometres) 10:58 hrs First car arrives Parc Fermé 15:12 hrs Podium/Prize-Giving 20:30 hrs FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies – Classifications:
https://www.fia.com/events/world-cup-cross-country-rallies/season-2021/classifications-2 -
Rajini Krishnan Vs Jagan Kumar, who will conquer Round 3
Chennai, 6 October 2021: The MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2021, boasting of over 100 entries, resumes after a month’s interval as the third round gets underway at the MMRT, here on Friday, October 8, with promise of thrilling action as the front-runners seek to consolidate their respective positions in the points table.
Much of the attention in this weekend’s 19-race card that will be gone through with Covid-19 safety restrictions in place, would be on the two premier Pro-Stock Open categories, the 301-400cc and 165cc, dominated by the pair of Chennai stars, Rajini Krishnan (RACR Castrol Power Racing) and Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing), respectively, both having won three of the four races over two rounds so far.
Further down the field, two other riders from Chennai, collegian Alwin Sundar (AS Motorsports) and Ryhana Bee (RACR Castrol Power Racing) head the championship standings in the Novice and Girls categories (Stock 165cc), respectively. Sundar, with two wins from four starts, enjoys a two-point lead over Thrissur’s Anfal Akdhar (Rockstar Racing). Ryhana, having won both races, leads by 20 points over her nearest rivals.
A clutch of teenagers have been making waves in the One-Make Championship organised by MMSC. Kolhapur’s Jinendra Kiran Sangave, only 12 years old, and local rider Rakshita Srihari Dave, 13, remain unbeaten in the TVS Rookie and Girls categories (both Apache RTR 200), respectively, while experienced Amarnath Menon, with two wins, heads the TVS Open class (Apache RR 310).
Likewise, in the Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup Chennai schoolboy Kavin Quintal, with four wins from as many starts, and Bokaro Steel City’s Prakash Kamat (two wins) lead the points table in the Honda NSF 250R and Honda CBR 150 categories, respectively.
MMSC president Ajit Thomas said: “It is a good sign that MMSC’s two-wheeler National Racing Championship is thriving with talented youngsters who are taking to the sport in increasing numbers, despite the many challenges that the pandemic has posed. While MRF Tyres continue to support us in a big way, we are also indebted our country’s top manufacturers, TVS, Honda, Yamaha and KTM, for their active participation, not to forget the Media for extending coverage.”
About Madras Motor Sports Club
Since its humble beginnings in 1953, the Madras Motor Sports Club has grown in stature as the hub of motorsport activity in India. Having moved its racing activities from Sholavaram to its present location, the MMRT circuit in Sriperumbudur in 1979, MMSC has kept pace with changing times by upgrading facilities. At a cost of about Rs 20 Crore, the MMSC built a pit complex comprising 20 garages, VIP hospitality suites and a viewing gallery, on the eastern side, apart from a second Paddock on the western side with its own short circuit. Parallelly, MMSC imported timing equipment specifically for Drag racing. The Control Room too was upgraded with state-of-the-art hardware while the track itself was improved to meet the exacting FIA standards for Grade-2 certification. MMSC also constructed a 500-capacity grand stand with provision for garages / storage below. In another upgrade, the MMSC purchased Digi flags from TAG Heuer Chronolec that will be positioned strategically around the track. The facilities are also extensively used by various vehicle manufacturers for testing their products, displays and corporate days.
