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Category: DTM
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Arjun Maini finishes 4th in a wet race on Sunday: DTM
Styria (Austria), 25 Sept. 2022: Ace Indian driver Arjun Maini excelled in rain and made a dash to the top on slicks gaining places rapidly but had to contend with a fourth place, missing the podium in the DTM races on Sunday.
Freaky weather at the Red Bull Ring showed completely different race days in Styria. Bengaluru’s Arjun Maini, however, showed an impressive race pace with his #36 Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the colours of team-partner PAUL in the first race, when he was turned around by an opponent in the first lap and drove from the last position up to the final 13th position – in the field of 27 GT3 cars.
DTM Spa 2022 Arjun had qualified 7th but had to start 10th due to a penalty from the previous race. He clearly showed tremendous Pace during the entire race as it is extremely difficult to overtake at the Red Bull ring.
The race on Sunday which was completely wet went much better and ultimately Arjun was able to bring the car across the finish line in 4th after an extremely exciting race on a wet Track that was drying towards the end of the race. Arjun Maini again showed his driving quality in the Wet and rewarded himself with 12 valuable championship points for the drivers’ and team standings.
Arjun pitted at the very end of the Pit Window to take a Chance on the Drying conditions and went out on Slick tyres with 15 minutes left to go. While he came out in P3, he fell back to P12 as the tyres were taking time to get heat into them. Towards the last few laps, he was able to recover several positions to make it to his best result this year in DTM. With all the known Brands in 27 cars, DTM is the most Competitive GT3 race driven by Single drivers across Europe.
Arjun Maini in action at the DTM races on Sunday in Styria. Arjun Maini, #36 Mercedes-AMG GT3: “I’m very happy with my race on Sunday. I was finally able to get a result with my pace. I like the Red Bull Ring – and now even a little bit more. It was very challenging today – but it was also a lot of fun to drive in these conditions. I want to Thank my team and Omega Seiki Mobility for making this happen.”
The last weekend of the DTM championship will be held at Hockenheimring between 7th and 9th October and will be Shown in India Live on Eurosports.
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DTM: Maini has a difficult Norisring weekend after Race 1 crash
Arjun Maini completed a difficult two weekends in DTM as he is still searching for a points finish since his last one.
Arjun Maini had difficult two weekends in DTM in Imola and Norisring with Haupt Racing Team driving the #36 Mercedes-AMG GT3 machine. In the latter, he was seventh in FP1 and first in FP2.
In qualifying, he was in Group A where he finished third and in overall standings he was eighth. But his Race 1 was short-lived after a rival crashed into him in a mayhem of a start in general.
He did make up places but eventually was forced to retire. In qualifying on Sunday, he was sixth in Group A and started the race from 11th in overall standings. It wasn’t a great start as he dropped to 16th.
He ended up 14th and out of points as he is still searching for a points finish since his fourth place finish. There has been unlucky moments for the Indian in several races since then.
“Misfortune, bad luck and breakdowns – that’s how I can sum it up,” said Maini. “After the retirement on Saturday, which was not our fault, things didn’t go well for us on Sunday either. We just have to leave this weekend behind us.”
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Arjun Maini misses podium: 2022 DTM championship
Lausitzring, 22 May 2022: Arjun Maini driving for Mercedes-AMG with team HRT narrowly missed his first podium of the season in only his third race of the 2022 DTM Championship.
After starting sixth in an extremely competitive qualifying session, Maini made a good start and was able to move into fourth during the first lap of the race. A quick pit stop from the team saw him briefly move into third, ahead of Lucas Auer. However, Maini’s colder tyres meant he fell back to fourth, a position he would maintain till the checkered flag.
The 2022 DTM championship boasts of 29 drivers, which is not only the largest grid in DTM history, but also an extremely competitive grid with some of the world’s best talent from the GT3 world taking part. Given its competitive nature, there were 21 cars that qualified within one second of pole in Qualifying 1 and 23 cars within a second in Qualifying 2.
Maini’s second qualifying session was compromised due to a Red Flag with 4 minutes to go, with the Indian failing to set a lap time when the session was halted. He eventually qualified 14th and lost some places as he went off on one of the corners as he battled side by side with several cars. He was, however, able to recover to finish 13th in Race 2.
Arjun Maini, Mercedes-AMG GT3 #36, said: “It was a mixed weekend for me. P6 in qualifying and P4 in the race on Saturday. We had good pace and a good pit stop. There was then a turbulent qualifying on Sunday, which meant I ended up starting from down in P14. In the end, I came home 13th – not ideal, but I feel positive looking ahead to Imola.”
“I want to thank OSM (Omega Seiki Mobility) for Supporting me in this extremely competitive series”.
The next Race Weekend of DTM will take place in Imola in Italy on June 18th and 19th 2022.
While the DTM championship will be broadcast live on Eurosport, the FIA Formula 3 championship will be broadcast live on Star Sports Select HD2 in India.
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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. -
Arjun Maini suffers another difficult weekend: DTM races
Assen, 19 Sept. 2021: Mercedes-AMG DTM driver Arjun Maini endured a difficult weekend at the Assen race circuit in Holland. The Indian, who secured his best-ever finish of sixth during the previous round, experienced one of those weekends where nothing seemed to went right despite his best efforts.
The Omega Seiki and JK Tyre-backed driver started the weekend promisingly, claiming fourth overall during the second free practice session of the weekend. However, an extremely tight qualifying session meant Maini could only manage 13th overall despite setting a time that was only 0.412 tenths off the pole sitters’ lap time.
Things went from bad to worse as a poor start from championship leader Liam Lawson caused a concertina effect with several cars hitting each other as Lawson’s Ferrari failed to get off the line cleanly. Maini was one of the drivers involved in the incident, meaning his race was over before even it started in what was a bitterly disappointing moment for the Indian driver.
Qualifying 2 once again saw Maini display his strong pace over a single lap as the Indian topped the timing sheets for a considerable amount of time during the session. Unfortunately, the Indian was deemed to have started his final timed lap fractionally after the checkered flag dropped meaning his lap time which was good enough for 8th on the grid was deleted and the Mercedes-AMG driver once again had to make do with a lowly starting position of 16th instead of the eighth he initially secured.
Despite the setback, Maini made a great getaway making his way up the order and into the points before coming in for his mandatory pitstop, the Indian then struggled for pace during the second half and found himself finishing the race in 13th.
“I’m honestly at a loss to explain our lack of pace during Race 2,” a disappointed Maini stated.
“We were definitely compromised by our lack of running but neither the team nor I expected the drop-off to be so severe. It’s something we’re looking into and hopefully, we can understand what went wrong today.
“The next round takes place at one of my favorite tracks on the calendar and I’m confident we can get back into the points.”
A rookie racing for a brand new team in the ultra-competitive DTM championship was always going to represent a challenge for both the driver and team. Nevertheless, Maini and GetSpeed have acquitted themselves well over the course of the season so far and a return to the Hockenheim race circuit should benefit the pair.
The next round of the DTM season takes place on October 1-3, 2021. -
Arjun Maini finishes best-ever 6th at DTM races
Styria (Austria), 6 Sept 2021: Mercedes-AMG driver Arjun Maini scored his best-ever finish in the DTM championship with the Indian finishing a career-best sixth and seventh in the two races held at the Red Bull Ring circuit.
The Omega Seiki and J.K.Tyre backed driver claimed a double points finish by claiming sixth and seventh over the course of the two races held at the Austrian race circuit. The result means the rookie has now had his most productive DTM weekend to date, with his GetSpeed racing team, who are also new to the series, now slowly making their way up the standings.
Maini’s pace was on display for all to see from the get-go with the Mercedes-AMG driver finishing the first practice session in fourth. An engine issue meant that the Indian driver had to miss the second practice session entirely but despite his limited running, Maini managed to qualify for Race1 in third.
The sole Indian on the grid made a strong getaway during the first race of the weekend though a botched pit stop saw him tumble down the order, which ultimately cost Maini his shot at a first podium in the ultra-competitive German racing championship. The Indian was locked in an intense battle with former Formula 1 star Alex Albon for a large section of the race and eventually missed out on a top-five finish by a whisker.
Race 2 saw Maini qualify tenth, though a shrewd pit call meant he was able to fight through the pack and ultimately end the race in seventh place.
“It’s been a great weekend for me personally,” Maini stated.
“The misfortune from the earlier races is now firmly behind me and I’m starting to get a proper feel of what it’s like to race GT cars. Obviously, the first half of the season was a learning experience for me and I now feel more confident heading into the races and the results reflect the same.
“GetSpeed too have done a fantastic job of adapting to the DTM and I believe we are well-positioned to end the championship strongly. The target for the remainder of the season has to be a podium, and I believe the team and I are capable of meeting this goal.”
Maini’s progress over the course of the year has been noticeable and appreciated. The weekend in Austria was a much better indicator of Maini’s pace in the series and he will now look to end the season strongly with three race weekends remaining.
The next round of the championship is scheduled to take place at the Assen race circuit in Holland in a fortnight’s time, September 18-20. -
Arjun Maini raring to go at the Red Bull ring in Styria
Spielberg (Austria) 3 Sept. 2021: Mercedes-AMG driver Arjun Maini will enter the fifth round with confidence after his good performance at the Nürburgring, where he got into the points for the first time scoring two valuable points in the 2021 DTM Championship after suffering initial hiccups which are not under his control.
After enduring a difficult start to his campaign, due in part to a series of o-track incidents, the Omega Seiki and JKTyre-backed Bengaluru driver finally broke his points-scoring duck with a stellar performance at the legendary Nürburgring race circuit.
Racing for the all-new GetSpeed DTM team, Arjun, the elder of the two Maini brothers, managed to bring his Mercedes GT3 racecar home in 10th at the conclusion of Race 1, in turn becoming the first Indian to score points in Germany’s apex racing championship.
“The last two races were fantastic and were an accurate reflection of my pace,” Maini said.
“I haven’t had the cleanest of weekends up until that point so it was good to finally have an incident-free weekend where I was able to bring home a solid amount of points. This marked GetSpeed’s first points in the series as well so it definitely was a memorable affair.
“Looking ahead I have fond memories of the Red Bull Ring and I hope I can build on my previous weekend and experience by bringing home some more points. The circuit’s undulations will be tricky to master but I’m confident about the preparation both the team and I have made in the lead up to this weekend,” he said about the circuit at Styria.After a few years’ absence, the DTM is making its comeback in Styria in 2021. The Red Bull Ring is located in Spielberg in the beautiful Murtal valley. The track is following the topography of the landscape, so that there is a lot of undulation. From the hotel located on the hill above the track, there is an unparalleled view, not only of the race track, but over the wide valley! The entire circuit facility is state-of-the-art and very nice, significantly contributing to the positive overall experience for visitors. Fascinating race cars are on display in the large welcome building, exclusive merchandise items can be purchased in the shop. Of course, in typical Styrian hospitality tradition, a wide variety of food is available, too, from tasty Leberkäse rolls via Wiener Schnitzel up a to delicious Kaiserschmarrn.
The weekend will get underway this Friday, August 3rd with the two practice sessions, with Qualifying 1 and Race 1 taking place on Saturday, August 4th, and Qualifying 2 and Race 2 concluding the weekend on Sunday, August 5th.
The full schedule can be viewed below and the qualifying sessions and races can be viewed live on Autocar India’s YouTube channel here.
Saturday Sept 4”
Qualy 1: 1.50 pm IST
Race `1: 5.00 pm IST
Sunday Sept 5th
Qualy 2: 1.50 pm IST
Race 2: 5.00 pm IST -
Arjun Maini delivers at Nurburgring to get 8 points: DTM
Nurburgring (Germany), 22 August 2021: Mercedes-AMG driver Arjun Maini finally got his DTM Championship going finishing both the races in points here on Saturday and Sunday. Starting on P12, Maini finished Race 1 in 10th to bag two points while he got 6 points in Race 2 after starting on P14 and finishing 13th.
Race 2 was won by Alex Albon of Alphatauri AF Corse while Kelvin van der Linde, the Championship leader at the half-way stage won Race 1.
Arjun Maini who clocked 1:27.996 in FP 1 after a very useful 27 laps was less than half a second off the pace of the fastest man Vincent Abri who clocked 1:27.480. In FP2, Maini did another 27 laps to better understand the circuit and the car and was again upto pace posting his best time of 1:27.620 which is just off 0.419 off the top car. He clocked 1:28.224 in Race 1 and was +52.788 after one pit stop in Race 2 (1:28.472).
A delighted Maini said: “I’m ecstatic with how the weekend went and it is nice to be back in points and I hope to steer clear and look forward to the second-half of the season.” After four rounds, Arjun Maini is in 15th place in the overall standings with 8 points ahead of Timo Glock of Rowe Racing.
The Bengaluru racing ace marked yet another milestone to become the first Indian to score points in the DTM Championship. Maini showed tremendous maturity by finishing 10th and a career-best seventh at the two races held at the legendary race circuit. After enduring a series of unfortunate incidents, the Mercedes-AMG star finally had a race weekend devoid of any on-track misfortune and he delivered a steady and measured drive to get valuable points.
Arjun Maini at Nurburgring on Sunday. Racing for the GetSpeed team, Maini struggled to put an Ideal lap manage P12 for Race 1 grid. The Indian made a tremendous getaway, making a few places, as the cars made their way around the first lap. However, an incident involving fellow Mercedes star Max Bukh brought out the Safety Car, which meant that the Indian had it to do all again. The restart saw Maini make up yet more positions with the Indian establishing himself in the top 10.
Unfortunately, tyre wear issues hampered Maini’s progress and he was forced to nurse his car home to a 10th place race finish.
A wet Qualifying 2 session saw Maini take P14 as he was piloting his GT3 racecar for the first time in wet-weather conditions. Despite his best efforts, Maini failed to qualify inside the top 10 and had a mountain to climb during the second race but managed to get into points again..
The race ultimately proved to be a chaotic as it saw nine cars retire. it was a shrewd call from Maini’s GetSpeed racing team that proved to make the difference as an early and well-executed pit-stop saw Maini make up a host of positions over the duration of the race and eventually claim his best result in the gruelling German race series.
“It’s been a long timing coming and I’m happy to have finally scored my first points in DTM. Obviously, a lot of credit has to go to the team at GetSpeed, I think our pit-stop was the second-fastest of the weekend and if it wasn’t for their tireless effort, this result would not have been possible,” said Maini who is backed by Omega Seiki Mobility and JK.Tyre.
“In fact, I think sixth was a definite possibility. There was the incident with Mike Rockenfeller, that cost us a lot of time and by the end of the race, I was gaining on Lucas Auer who finished only a second ahead of me.
“Nonetheless I look forward to the next round at the Red Bull Ring and I hope this weekend proves to be an inflection point for the rest of the season.”
Arjun Maini, who shifted focus to endurance racing told this writer earlier that his love and passion for this long-format has been increasing by the day and he is really caught the endurance bug. “F1 is not my target anymore. I enjoy taking part in Endurance races and look forward to making it to the Le Mans.”
He started his DTM career with the first round in Monza where he finished 13th in Race 1 and 18th in Race 2. In Round 2 at lausitzring, he finished 14th after a good qualifying stint which put him on P6 but he suffered mechanical issues. In Race 2, he finished 12th starting from P9. The third at Circuit Zolder saw Arjun Maini suffer misfortune which was not in his hands as he had his first DNC after P15 in qualification and the car was so badly damaged and could not be readied for Race 2. And it took Round 4 in Nurburgring here to bring him back to racing and he delivered with points.
The next 2 races will be September 4 to 5 at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.
Race 2 report:
Arjun Maini finished Race 2 in 13th after a penalty. Earlier, Alex Albon scored his maiden victory in DTM at the Nürburgring, the second win for Ferrari in history of the series. In an action-packed race, the Thai driver, who had started from pole position, stayed away from all the incidents and won in dominant fashion. Red Bull’s replacement Formula 1 driver is the sixth winner from eight DTM races held so far this season. In dry, good weather conditions, Spaniard Daniel Juncadella with the Mercedes-AMG of the GruppeM team and two-time DTM champion Marco Wittmann with the Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW rounded out the podium.
After eight of 16 races, Kelvin van der Linde of the ABT Sportsline Audi team is the unofficial ‘half-time champion’ of the 2021 DTM, although, on Sunday, the South African failed to score points for the first time this year after a collision with Liam Lawson and Mike Rockenfeller in the chicane. With 129 points, Kelvin van der Linde is starting the second half of the season as the leader in the drivers’ standings. His margin over Maximilian Götz (96) decreased to 33 points. Third in the standings is now Wittmann (94), Albon (82) has moved up to fourth place.
Porsche, meanwhile, had bad luck during its DTM début. Like on Saturday, Michael Ammermüller didn’t make it to the finish with the 911 run by SSR Performance, but had clearly shown the potential with fourth place on the starting grid. 19-year-old Belgian Esteban Muth scored the best result of the season for Lamborghini so far with fifth place. Ex-Formula 1 driver Timo Glock finally scored his first championship points of the season with the ROWE Racing BMW.
“Today, that was a really good day for my team and for myself,” Albon said after becoming the first DTM race winner from Thailand. “The team has been working hard overnight and that paid off. Today, we have made a step forward, we want to carry over this momentum.” The Red Bull Ferrari combination by AF Corse is the first team to have won races with both its drivers, Albon and Lawson, this year.
