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Category: F3
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Kush Maini finishes a creditable 3rd in Race 2, consolidates third position in the championship
Kush Maini in action at Brands Hatch where took a third place on Sunday. Images: Maini team Brands Hatch, 6 Aug 2018: Up and coming Indian racer Kush Maini of Lanan Racing, the junior of the Maini brothers, finished third in Race 2 to consolidate his third place in the championship standings after a strong display at the Round 6 of the BRDC F3 Championship at the renowned Brands Hatch here on Sunday.
The 17-year old Bangalore-born racer came back strongly after a bad outing at Spa in the last round, He managed two exciting results, finishing sixth in the Race 1 and Race 3, to bag enough points and packed it with an impressive third-place drive to the podium in Race 2.
By claiming 56 points in this round, the Junior Maini has 321 points in the driver’s championship, 19 points ahead of fourth-placed Gamble.
Despite not having much track time in the car, Maini started the weekend with a good qualifying session taking P6 for Race 1 after only a 20-minute practice session. He P6 time was just 0.379s off pole. Then, Maini drove a steady race and managed to finish sixth, the position he started on the grid in Race 1.
Kush Maini with his trophy at Brands Hatch after his third place in Race 2 on Sunday. Race 2 saw a reverse-grid start, and Maini was forced to start from P10. Despite a bad start, Maini recovered in the first lap itself, as he managed to avoid the clash in front and sneaked in to move up. “There was chaos at the front and I just kept my nose clean and looked for the opportunities,” he said about the initial laps in Race 2. He had a busy race thereafter and with some gritty driving, he avoided the `frantic’ action on the second lap to surge past the cars ahead of him into the fifth position. Then a safety-car was deployed that did not help as he dropped a position after the restart. But the youngster, who grew up watching his father Gautam Maini and elder brother Arjun Maini racing cars, from childhood managed to go up into fourth place by Lap 9. A podium place was in the waiting as the third-placed finisher Ravishankar had to take a penalty for an infringement.
Kush started the final race of the weekend from P8 on the grid. He carried on some of the great form, from his previous race and ensured another P6 comfortably overtaking a couple of cars and then widened the gap to Maldonado, who was trailing him in seventh. He had a lead of over 10-seconds to the Maldonado.
Talking about his race, Kush Maini said, “It’s my eighth podium of the year and so I’m happy, But we’ve had a few tough races, so it’s good to be back here. We will be pushing harder to get back on the top step. There were plenty of battles raging and I thought there was going to be a bit of contact so I took different lines and got people on the exits, and I’m really happy with how I raced my race.”
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Jehan Daruvala excels at the legendary Spa circuit, with a Pole, Fastest Lap and a victory
Jehan Daruvala flashing past the finish line while winning Race 1 at Spa on Friday. Spa (Belgium), 27 July 2018: Jehan Daruvala, the first Indian to win in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship, once again set a new benchmark with pole position, fastest lap and race victory in Race 1 at the legendary Formula 1 circuit of Spa Francorchamps in Belgium.
Jehan Daruvala celebrates victory at Spa. The teenage racing sensation from Mumbai had a tense qualifying earlier yesterday, and began setting lap times with only five minutes left for the session to end. Jehan was fifth on the timesheets after his first lap and improved to provisional second on the next lap. On his third and last effort, Jehan gave it everything for a brilliant lap to bag pole position by 0.10 seconds ahead of the then championship leader Marcus Armstrong from New Zealand. Jehan managed to lap the 7 kms circuit in a time of 2:12.983, while Spaniard, Alex Palou was third, two-tenths behind Jehan.
Jehan unfortunately lost ground when the lights went off to start the race. His car bogged down and by the first corner Jehan had fallen to third. As the leaders accelerated out of the iconic Eau Rouge corner, Jehan took advantage of the slip stream and muscled his way into second. Soon, an incident behind the leaders brought out the safety car for two laps.
The race resumed with Alex Palou retaining his lead ahead of Jehan, who in turn faced no threat. Once again, out of Eau Rouge and onto the long Kemmel Straight, Jehan went around the outside of Palou to grab the race lead. Jehan thereafter had to ensure that he immediately put in a bit of a gap to avoid being overtaken once again due to the slip stream effect. He managed to do that successfully, opening up six-tenth advantage over Palou.
Jehan Daruvala on way to victory at Spa The former CIK FIA Asia Pacific Karting Champion continued his dominance over the rest of the field, pulling out over two-tenths of a lap over everyone else. The Spaniard too, did not face any challenges as the two leaders were in a class of their own, pulling away throughout.
Jehan then pulled off a series of fastest race laps to move out of Palou’s reach completely, before easing off a bit, at the end. The Sahara Force India Academy racer eventually won the race with a comfortable margin of 3.2 seconds ahead of Palou and a massive 11.9 seconds ahead of Estonian racer, Ralf Aron in third.
The victory was also Jehan’s fourth podium of 2018 in the FIA F3 series which is arguably one of the toughest stepping stones to reach Formula 1. “The start was not ideal, but I kept my cool as I knew we were quick. Once I was ahead, I just had to make sure I made no mistakes. A lot of credit goes to the team for all the effort that they have put in,” said Jehan after the win.
Jehan has a number of firsts to his credit such as the first Indian to win a Grand Prix (New Zealand Grand Prix in the Toyota Racing Series in 2017) as well as the only Indian to stand on the podium of any FIA World Championship (third in the FIA CIK World Karting Championship). Jehan also remains the only Indian to win titles in the FIA CIK Asia Pacific Karting Championship and British Karting Championship.
Jehan will start 12th and 4th for Race 2 and 3 respectively, later this weekend.
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Kush Maini impresses again with his 7th podium of the year; also sets lap record
Kush Maini on the podium at Silverstone Silverstone, 11 June 2018: Kush Maini’s rich vein of form continued with yet another couple of podiums on the race weekend, this time at the historic Silverstone track, making it 7 podiums in four rounds of the BRDC British F3 championship. The JK Racing-supported driver finished P2 in a tight Race 1, and ended the weekend with a strong P3 finish in Race 3, solidifying his third place in the driver’s standings with 227 points.
Maini started the weekend on a high, with a strong qualifying session where he was on top for the most part only to be pushed down to P2 with five minutes to go, he ended up behind Lundqvist in the session, just 0.051s off pole.
Race 1 began with Lundqvist and Kush making good starts off the line, and saw Lundqvist pull away after the first lap. Kush closed the gap on the race leader with some quick laps, one if which saw him create a new BRDC British F3 lap record around the newly resurfaced Silverstone Grand Prix circuit in the process. He finished just 0.392s off the P1, making this his sixth podium of the championship.
Race 2 saw Kush start at the back of the pack from P16, owing to the reverse grid format of the F3. An early incident in the race meant he had to recover and fight back to gain a couple of places and finish the race in P14.
Race 3 however saw Kush start from pole, on account of his record breaking lap in Race 1. A strong start for Tom Gamble, meant Kush lost one place off the line and while trying to regain this position, Kush veered off course, dropping to P3 by the end of lap 1. Some exciting but disciplined driving ensured that he finished on the podium yet again, keeping him in the hunt for the driver’s championship.
Talking about his weekend, Kush Maini said: “The first race was good for us with promising speed. The second race was tricky, we got a good start but three into one corner doesn’t go, but it was a racing incident. We put that behind us and started on pole for race three because of the fastest lap. I didn’t get off the line well and then had a bit of a tussle through Maggots and Becketts but we can only take the positives from this weekend, we’re still third in the championship with a bit of a margin, but I think we can keep pushing and I’m going to give it my all every race, and that’s all I can do.”
The next round of BRDC F3 Championship will take place at the legendary Spa circuit towards the end of July.
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Jehan Daruvala opens European Formula 3 season with podium at Pau
Photo courtesy Jehan’s twitter handle @DaruvalaJehan Pau (France) 14 May 2018: Sahara Force India Academy racer Jehan Daruvala began his 2018 campaign in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship with a podium in Race 3 of the season opener. Jehan created history last year, when he became the first Indian ever to win a race in the FIA F3 European Championship when he dominated and won at Nuremburg in Germany.
The first round of the 2018 season was held on the famous street circuit of Pau in southern France. Jehan, the 19-year old from Mumbai and driving for Carlin team, qualified just 0.29 seconds off the quickest, but the extremely competitive grid meant that he would start seventh.
In the next qualifying session, Jehan was supremely quick. He was all set to bag pole position, but a slower car in front of him meant Jehan was blocked and he qualified down in seventh and fifth for the remaining races.
The highlight of Jehan’s weekend was when he made a brilliant start from fifth on a completely wet circuit in Race 3. The Indian teenager climbed two places before corner 1 and thereafter made no mistakes in the treacherous conditions around the tight street circuit.
Jehan was comfortable in third, when the race was stopped 13 minutes before schedule due to the un-driveable wet conditions, sealing Jehan’s podium.
Jehan Daruvala (Carlin) in action at Pau, France Jehan said: “At the start, I was able to move up from fifth to third place. Initially, the two drivers in front of me were faster and were able to pull a gap. Later on, I made a mistake: I hit a kerb and from then on, I was afraid that my suspension could break. That had happened to me in the first race already and it was always in the back of my mind. Therefore, perhaps it was good for me that the race was stopped, because nobody was able to take third place away from me.”
Earlier in the weekend, Jehan had a poor start for Race 1 and lost a couple of places before climbing up to seventh. A mechanical failure with the suspension due to no fault of his own saw Jehan retire from the race. In Race 2, Jehan started seventh and ultimately finished sixth after another racer crashed.
Jehan’s podium in Race 3, popularly known as the Pau Grand Prix, was the highlight of his weekend which was otherwise compromised due to situations beyond his control. His pace has been right up there in the series which is arguably one of the most important steps to Formula 1 and certainly one of the most competitive.
“I made a mistake in the first qualifying which cost me pole. In the second qualifying, I was unfortunately held up which again cost me pole position. I am very happy with my pace, especially in the wet. I am now much more confident and up there. After all the things that went wrong, I am relieved with the podium this weekend. It’s time to put this behind me and continue working hard for the rest of the season,” said Jehan.
The second of the 10-round championship will be held at the Hungaroring F1 circuit in Hungary on June 2-3.
