Your basket is currently empty!
Category: Indians Abroad
News about Indians racing in different motorsports events abroad
-
Kush Maini, the lone Indian star in Formula 3
Kush Maini is the youngest of the Maini brothers from Bengaluru. He is one of the top three Formula drivers currently in India and is taking part in the FIA Formula 3 races. Here is the Formula 3 interview with the Indian star: Get to know MP Motorsport’s Kush Maini as he runs through his driving style, favourite track and who his pick is for racing hero.
NAME: Kush Maini DATE OF BIRTH: 22/09/2000 NATIONALITY: Indian 2022 TEAM: MP Motorsport
WHERE DID YOU GROW UP?
“I grew up in Bangalore, India, went to school there, but I moved to the UK quite early on for karting. Then I’ve also lived in Italy in Switzerland, so I’ve been about. The last four years, I’ve lived in the UK and that’s where I conduct all my training and I think it’s just an easier base than India even though I’d love to live at home. It’s just too far away.”
FIRST RACING MEMORY
“My first win in karts when I was 10 in the Indian National Championship.
“The fact that there were a lot of drivers older than me, Jehan (Daruvala) was racing in it. It was a good race to win. I had never won before that year and it was the last one, I just managed to win it. So that gave me confidence.”
RACING STYLE
“I would say aggressive. Of course it just depends on the situation. If it’s a track with a lot of high-speed corners, you want to go easy on the steering. Whereas if you take a race situation, you know if you’re starting second or third, you’ve got to be smart.”
RACING HEROES
“I would say for sure, (Ayrton) Senna, but to be a bit different – Jim Clark. I love the history and I think one of the reasons I like him is he never really went over the limit. He was always right on the edge. But when you look at his onboards or whatever, when drivers describe how he was so smooth and never really made any errors.
“So that’s just out of the car, his whole personality was just – you could be really good friends with him or you see some stills or pictures or videos of him where you’d be quite scared to race against him, so I really liked the way he was.”
BIGGEST RACING ACHIEVEMENT
“I would say my 2020 year in British Formula 3. We had a really good lead in the first half the season by like 60 points or something and it was looking good. Obviously I finished second but I think that year, we were the new team coming into the Championship and we really gave Carlin, which was one of the best in that Championship at the time, a run for their money. So I would say that year was quite good.”
BEST THING ABOUT BEING A RACING DRIVER
“I think the discipline it teaches you. I think it just improves you as a person. There’s a lot more structure in your life. The last few years when I’ve got really serious with the racing, I think my life structure has changed. I’m really focused on the training so I think it’s the qualities that it teaches you.”
FAVOURITE TRACK
“Silverstone – I drove there a lot in British F3 so I know it pretty well and I just love the atmosphere. And I get to sleep in my own bed.”
-
Jehan Daruvala claims second place in Sprint: F2
Monte Carlo, 28 May 2022: Indian racing star Jehan Daruvala of Prema Racing claimed second place behind his teammate in the FIA Formula 2 Championship here on Saturday.
“P2 in Monaco is a happy result. It feels great to be on the podium. A big congratulations to my team Prema Racing,” said Daruvala after the race.
PREMA Racing’s Dennis Hauger secured his first win in Formula 2 around the streets of Monte Carlo. The Norwegian capitalised on a stall by reverse pole-man Jake Hughes at lights out to assume the lead of the race and he never looked back. Jehan Daruvala made it a PREMA one-two, with Marcus Armstrong following closely behind to complete the podium.
Enzo Fittipaldi continued his great form, finishing the race fourth after fending off Jüri Vips for most of the 30 laps. Théo Pourchaire followed in sixth position, with Jack Doohan, Liam Lawson, Roy Nissany and Logan Sargeant completing the top 10.
AS IT HAPPENED
Daruvala, left, on the podium after taking 2nd in the F2 Sprint race on Saturday. Reverse pole-sitter Hughes stalled off the line allowing Hauger a clean run into Saint Devote to take the lead. Daruvala followed closely ahead of Armstrong, Fittipaldi and Vips. Pourchaire was on the move, diving up the inside of Doohan to take sixth position from the Virtuosi Racing driver on the opening lap.
Felipe Drugovich meanwhile plummeted and was in the pits at the end of the opening lap having sustained a puncture and fallen to last place. He made a bold call to switch to the full wets, reporting that drops of rain were beginning to fall. Those spots remained fine as he fell to over a minute behind Hauger. The Championship leader pitted again on lap four for dry tyres, going a lap down in the process. To compound the MP Motorsport driver’s woes, he was handed a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
With DRS enabled, Hauger had moved 1.5s clear of Daruvala but there was queue was starting to form behind Fittipaldi in fourth. Vips, Pourchaire, Doohan and Liam Lawson were part of the train, but there was no way through on the Charouz Racing System driver.
The racing remained under green flag conditions until lap 10 when Clément Novalak hit the wall on the exit of La Rascasse. A dive up the inside by Ayumu Iwasa got him side-by-side with the Frenchman, leading to the MP Motorsport driver tagging the barriers on corner exit. It brought the Safety Car out as Novalak’s car was recovered. Iwasa was in at the end of the next lap for a new front wing, dropping him to 17th. The Japanese driver later received a 10-second time penalty for the incident.
The Safety Car was withdrawn on lap 13 and Hauger resumed his comfortable lead, gaining over a second on Daruvala during the first lap back racing. Hughes had got going after his stall at the start and was the fastest man on track at the halfway stage of the Sprint Race. Unfortunately for the Van Amersfoort Racing driver, he was 16s down on the next car up the road and circulating in 19th.
Having re-joined the race five laps down and on the wet tyres, Drugovich retired on lap 20. Meanwhile, PREMA Racing were enjoying a one-two heading into the final 10 laps, though Daruvala was being pressured by Armstrong for P2, with the Hitech Grand Prix driver on the brink of being within DRS range.
Down the order, Olli Caldwell had a lock-up into the Nouvelle Chicane and lightly tagged the back of Marino Sato’s Virtuosi car. Both avoided major damage and continued on in 15th and 16th respectively with five laps to go.
Up in front, nobody could get close to Hauger, who’d disappeared six seconds up the road by the chequered flag. Daruvala held onto second after late pressure from Armstrong. Fittipaldi likewise resisted the pressure from Vips behind to claim fourth while Pourchaire, Doohan – who claimed the fastest lap on the final tour – Lawson, Nissany and Sargeant kept it clean to each finish in the top 10.
KEY QUOTE – Dennis Hauger, PREMA Racing
“(My) first win in Formula 2, really happy with that. It was a good race, obviously Jake (Hughes) stalled, but from then on I just tried to keep everything clean and keep up some good pace. Really happy with this win in Monaco. Hopefully we can fight for a bit more tomorrow as well.”
THE CHAMPIONSHIP VIEW
Drugovich remains the Championship leader on 88 points, meanwhile, Pourchaire moves onto 63 point. Daruvala’s second-place finish keeps him third in the standings, while Armstrong demotes Lawson to fifth, moving onto 42 points versus the Carlin driver’s 38.
The Teams’ Standings is still lead by MP Motorsport on 110 points, with ART Grand Prix remaining in second now on 88. Behind both though, Hitech Grand Prix jump Carlin for third, now on 76 and 74 points respectively.
WHAT’S NEXT
The Monte Carlo Feature Race will take place on Sunday with lights out at 09:50 local time.
-
Jehan to start P3 in the Sprint race: F2
Monte Carlo, 27 May 2022: Jehan Daruvala, the Indian racing star qualified fourth fastest in Group B and will start the Sprint race on Saturday in P3 but he will end up in P8 for the Feature race on Sunday in the Formula 2 World Championship held at the famous F1 Circuit here along with the F1 race.
“We had the pace and it was anybody’s pole today. We were right up there in terms of pace but unfortunately for us, there was a Red flag in the end but I am glad that Jake is ok. Now I want to put my head down for the races and go for it,” said Jehan Daruvala after the qualification session.
Qualifying report
Liam Lawson set the fastest time in Qualifying around the streets of Monte Carlo, narrowly beating out Ayumu Iwasa by just 0.059s. Championship leader Felipe Drugovich hit the wall on his final effort but remained third-quickest in Group A. Meanwhile, ART Grand Prix’s Théo Pourchaire topped Group B with a 1:21.535 and will start from second.
Drugovich had been fighting with Lawson as both traded fastest sector times throughout the first segment. The Brazilian was quickest up until Group A’s final efforts, when a slide out of the final corner on what could have been his fastest lap resulted in contact with the wall. Lawson improved and finished his lap to go fastest in the first group.
A slow burn in Group B followed but a red flag in the final minute prevented any last-gasp improvements. A crash for Van Amersfoort Racing’s Jake Hughes at the Swimming Pool chicane ended the session prematurely. It meant that Pourchaire’s penultimate attempt was good enough for the top spot in the second group.
GROUP A
Lawson led the first group out onto the track with conditions looking perfect for Qualifying. All 11 drivers ventured out on scrubbed tyres before boxing after a few exploratory laps for fresh supersofts.
Drugovich set the first representative lap with a 1:21.795s for the rest to beat. Ralph Boschung got closest, just 0.064s down. The former was conservative on his first effort but found improvements across all sectors on his subsequent lap, lowering his session-topping time to a 1:21.348s. Boschung on the other hand radioed into his team that he had tagged the wall on his next lap, bending the steering and leaving him sixth with the final laps to go.
The Championship leader pushed for his third and final lap, setting a session-best middle sector but just a few hundred metres from the line, tagged the wall in the final corner forcing him to pull over. Lawson kept it out of the barriers, finished his lap and improved to go fastest with a 1:21.229s. Iwasa also improved his time to go second in his group.
GROUP B
Logan Sargeant was the first out in Group B for the installation laps. The first of the proper efforts began to filter in with seven minutes remaining. Sargeant’s 1:22.230s was the time to beat heading into the last part of the session.
Roy Nissany edged ahead on his first flying lap, a 1:22.178s put him first with five minutes remaining. Hughes was the next to go fastest, even if he scraped along the barriers at the final corner on the way to the line. Moments later Jehan Daruvala put his PREMA Racing car on top with a 1:21.928s.
Enzo Fittipaldi improved with three minutes left to go as the track continued to rubber in and drivers began to take more risks. Jüri Vips was then quickest but only for a matter of seconds as Théo Pourchaire pipped him by 0.083s ahead of the final minute.
The final set of laps wouldn’t arrive though as Hughes suffered a crash through the Swimming Pool chicane, bringing out the red flags and with so little time left on the clock, the session wasn’t resumed. Clipping the wall on corner entry, the front wing bounced him into the wall and out of the session.
With the aggregated results taken from the sessions, Lawson will line up on pole ahead of Pourchaire with Iwasa alongside Vips on the second row. Drugovich will be fifth followed by Fittipaldi. Doohan is seventh ahead of Daruvala. Marcus Armstrong and Hughes round out the top 10.
-
Jehan Daruvala 7th fastest in free practice: F2
Monaco, 26 May 2022: Indian racing star Jehan Daruvala was 7th fastest in the Free practice on Thursday in the Monace F2 races which were part of the Formula 1 week-end at the famed circuit which is know for it gala parties.
Jehan Daruvala will be hoping for a change in his Formula 2 fortunes as he heads to glamorous Monaco this weekend determined to bounce back from an unlucky outing in Spain.
The Red Bull-backed racer was denied the chance to fight for victory at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya after an electrical issue sidelined him on the fourth lap of last Sunday’s Feature race.
His Spanish misfortune came on the heels of an ill-timed safety car in Imola that again cost him a shot at the win.
Monaco, an iconic but unforgiving venue that offers no margin for error, could set the stage for a turnaround in fortunes for Jehan, especially if he carries over his recent qualifying form.
Jehan said, “Monaco is always a really special weekend. The circuit is a real old-school street layout around which the tiniest mistakes can prove costly. It’s also a track that’s extremely difficult to overtake on which means qualifying strongly will be key. We were in the fight for pole in Spain, we know we have the pace and all we need now is a little bit of luck. This is a race every driver wants to win and I’m confident if we can get everything right we will be right in the thick of the fight for victory.”
Jehan, who until his Spanish misfortune had finished on the podium in every round this season, is currently third in the overall drivers’ standings.
The Prema Racing driver, already a three-time Formula 2 winner, is aiming to become the first Indian to win the Formula 2 title this season.
Weekend Schedule*
Free practice: Thursday, May 26th at 2035 IST
Qualifying: Friday, May 27th at 1510 IST
Sprint race: Saturday, May 28th at 2110 IST
Feature race: Sunday, May 29th at 1320 IST
*Live exclusively on Star Sports Select 2 and Select 2 HD
About Jehan Daruvala
Jehan Daruvala is a racing driver from Mumbai, India. He began karting at the age of 10 in 2009. Two years later, he was picked as one of the three winners of Force India’s ‘One From a Billion’ talent hunt. In 2013, he became the first Asian to win the British KF3 karting championship. A proven winner, Jehan has won in every category he has competed in. He is currently racing in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, which is a feeder series to Formula 1 and takes place on the same weekends. Already a multiple winner in the category, Jehan’s goal for the 2022 season is to claim the title which would boost his chances of becoming only the third Indian on the Formula One grid.
-
Forgettable week-end for Kush Maini: F3
Barcelona, 22 May 2022: Indian F3 racer Kush Maini had a forgettable week-end finishing 25th while Victor Martins put the disappointment of an early retirement in Saturday’s Sprint Race behind him, and won with a dominant display, his second win of the Formula 3 season. The ART Grand Prix driver seized the lead into the opening corner and didn’t look back, controlling the pace despite two Safety Car restarts. The MP Motorsport driver from Bengaluru had a bad day and will be looking forward to make amends in the next round with a better car. He came in contact with Rafel Villagomez in the fag end losing his front wing following an excursion into the gravel and suffered a 10-second penalty for causing a collusion and saw a harsh end to his campaign in Spain.
Pole-sitter Roman Stanek put up a strong defence throughout to keep Isack Hadjar at bay for second. Alexander Smolyar brought home another solid haul of points in fourth, ahead of PREMA Racing’s Oliver Bearman and Jak Crawford.
Caio Collet survived a late charge from Franco Colapinto to finish seventh, as Kaylen Frederick hung on for ninth. Meanwhile, Juan Manuel Correa faced an action-packed three-way duel with Arthur Leclerc and Grégoire Saucy during the closing stages to snatch the final points-paying position in P10.
-
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.
-
Jehan Daruvala to start on P3 for Sprint race: F2
Barcelona, 20 May 2022: The next Indian racing prospect for F1, Jehan Daruvala, qualified in fourth on Friday but the Red Bull Junior and Prma Racing driver will start on P3 with the grid penalty to polesitter.
Felipe Drugovich will start tomorrow’s Barcelona Sprint Race from fourth on the grid instead of pole position after being handed a three-place grid penalty following Qualifying.
The sanction was handed out to the Brazilian for impeding his title rival Théo Pourchaire in the closing minutes of the session. The ART Grand Prix driver complained to his team that Drugovich had impeded him on the exit of Turn 1 on his final flying lap.
Qualifying Report
Leaving his best till last in Qualifying, Virtuosi Racing’s Jack Doohan stormed his way to a second pole position in Formula 2. The Aussie managed to hold off an extremely late charge from Hitech Grand Prix’s Jüri Vips, which saw the Estonian driver leap up from last to second and ahead of ART Grand Prix’s Frederik Vesti in third.
The session got underway with only 21 drivers taking part, as Campos Racing’s Ralph Boschung withdrew from the event after suffering with neck pain, which he sustained during the third round in Imola.
Despite the early evening timing, nailing their preparation laps and getting the soft Pirelli tyres in their ideal operating window was going to be a vital factor as temperatures remained around 39.9°C – all while jostling for position around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Carlin’s Liam Lawson was quick out of the blocks, becoming the first driver to set a representative lap. His time of 1:30.753 was immediately beaten by his teammate Logan Sargeant, before Théo Pourchaire and Marino Sato jumped to the top of the timing sheets in quick succession.
Jehan Daruvala then set the benchmark to go fastest with a 1:29.512. Whilst most of the grid clocked in a lap time early on, Marcus Armstrong, Doohan, Felipe Drugovich and Richard Verschoor decided to use the alternative strategy and wait for quieter conditions during the mid-point of the session.
Taking advantage of the empty track, Drugovich went aggressive and threw his MP Motorsport car into the final chicane to go three-tenths clear of Daruvala. However, that time wasn’t destined to last for long as Doohan clocked in a 1:29.147 to pip the Brazilian by 0.043s.
All eyes then turned to the PREMA Racing duo, as Daruvala regained the top spot by over two-tenths of a second and Hauger climbed up into fourth. As the pair hopped out of their cars, their rivals’ weekends rested on their performance in the dying minutes of the session. It was Doohan who made the most of it to snatch provisional pole with a 1:28.612. Vesti also benefitted from the late running, shooting up from 17th to second.
There was one driver left who could deny Doohan the two points for pole – Vips, who was back behind the wheel of the Hitech following his Formula 1 Free Practice debut earlier in the day. Getting over the line just in the nick of time, the last-placed driver pushed it to the limit, but it wasn’t enough to overhaul the Virtuosi’s time, crossing the line 0.023s slower and finishing the session P2.
Daruvala eventually had to settle for fourth, ahead of Sargeant and Iwasa. Pourchaire ended the session seventh-fastest with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Jake Hughes in eighth. Calan Williams put in another promising performance for Trident to qualify in ninth, as Drugovich rounded out the top 10.
The Brazilian will line up on reverse grid pole for Saturday’s Sprint Race when the lights go out at 5:40PM local time.
-
Kush Maini looks to get better set-up for Saturday: F3
Barcelona, 20 May 2022: Bengaluru racing driver and only Indian in F3, Kush Maini finished 23rd among 30 drivers in the practice session on Friday. Maini, the MP team driver, did 11 laps and was just off 1.2 seconds off the pace and will be looking to get a better set-up for Saturday.
In the qualifying session later, Kush Maini stood 23rd.
Practice session report
For the second round in a row, ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins set the pace during Formula 3 Free Practice, clocking in a 1:32.796 to go fastest in Barcelona.
With cooler early morning temperatures, it was a somewhat leisurely start to running as the 30-car field turned their focus towards the end of the session.
Initially, the Carlin trio led the way with Williams Racing Academy driver Zak O’Sullivan setting a benchmark of 1:35.420, ahead of teammates Brad Benavides and Enzo Trulli.
15 minutes in and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Reece Ushijima leaped to the top of the timing sheets, becoming the first driver to break the 1:34s barrier. David Vidales then went quickest on home soil with a 1:33.932, narrowly ahead of Jenzer Motorsport’s Ido Cohen and his Campos Racing teammate Josep María Martí.
While track temperatures rose above 29°C, lap times continued to tumble. A flurry of action saw six drivers exchange the top spot, changing hands between the Trident trio of Oliver Rasmussen, Zane Maloney and then Roman Stanek with a 1:33.304.
Title contenders Arthur Leclerc and Victor Martins were nip-and-tuck on track with less than a tenth between them. The PREMA Racing driver went quickest, only for Championship leader Victor Martins to go 0.076s quicker.
Having completed in-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya a month ago, the drivers all set about finding the limits ahead of what’s expected to be a tight Qualifying session.
Both Rasmussen in the Trident and VAR’s Rafael Villagómez found themselves fighting a snap of oversteer at Turn 9, while Hitech Grand Prix’s Isack Hadjar brushed the gravel at the next corner and Leclerc suffered a heavy front lock-up.
Attentions turned from the timing sheets to the lap counts, as the top 10 remained virtually unchanged for the final 15 minutes of Practice.
Martins ended the session fastest, ahead of Leclerc. Stanek slotted into third, just over half a second behind the leading time.
Jak Crawford was fourth ahead of Imola Sprint Race winner Franco Colapinto and pole-sitter last time out Maloney. Oliver Bearman made it three PREMAs inside the top seven, ahead of Hitech’s Kaylen Frederick.
MP Motorsport’s Alexander Smolyar was ninth fastest, as Vidales put his Campos into 10th at the team’s home weekend.
Importantly, the top 12 were all within a second of the ART’s leading time, so be prepared for a intense battle for the two pole position points in Qualifying when the action returns on Friday at 3:30pm local time.
-
Jehan Daruvala 2nd fastest in practice session: F2
Barcelona, 20 May 2022: Star Indian racer and Red Bull Junior Jehan Daruvala, clocked the second fastest time in the practice session on Friday.
Jehan, finished second fastest with a 1:31.369, trailing Felipe Drugovich by four tenths.
F2 visited Barcelona for in-season tests just last month but temperatures then were vastly different to conditions facing drivers this weekend.
Having gathered data that is now worth less due to the drastic difference in track and ambient temperatures, the Indian showed enough pace to go into Saturday’s sessions. Jehan is the only driver who has taken a podium in all the three rounds held till now.
Felipe Drugovich led the way in Formula 2 Free Practice after multiple red flag stoppages curtailed running ahead of Qualifying. The MP Motorsport driver was almost a full half-second clear of the pack, with Jehan Daruvala and Logan Sargeant his closest challengers 0.4 and 0.5s behind him.
Olli Caldwell and Marcus Armstrong both brought out red flags during the session, with the Campos Racing driver hitting the wall at Turn 9. Meanwhile, Armstrong became beached in the gravel at Turn 4 as drivers struggled for grip under the midday sun.
Championship leader Théo Pourchaire was out first for an immediate installation lap but there was no rush to get out on track for anyone. The Van Amersfoort Racing duo of Jake Hughes and Amaury Cordeel set the initial times to beat with the latter’s 1:32.609 the fastest time of the early lappers.
Just as the circuit began to fill up, a red flag was thrown for Olli Caldwell, who hit the barriers on the exit of Turn 9 on his first flying lap. The Campos driver was able to get out of the car himself after losing the rear end mid-corner and nosing into the barriers.
After the brief stoppage, the session resumed with 26 minutes remaining and a long train of cars led by Frederik Vesti returned to the circuit. Marcus Armstrong was one of the first drivers to get onto a push lap, but he brought out the red flags for the second time in Free Practice.
The Hitech Grand Prix driver dropped the rear of his car at Turn 4 and spun into the gravel after setting the fastest first sector time of the session. Agonisingly for the Briton, he couldn’t get back onto track and his car had to be recovered by the marshals.
The session was back to green flag conditions with just over 16 minutes remaining and there was a rush to get out to make up for the lost time. The timing screens lit up immediately with purple sector times, but it was Dennis Hauger who topped the times after the first flying laps with a 1:31.707.
Felipe Drugovich had gone well during in-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya earlier this year and the Brazilian carried on from where he’d left off, going eight-tenths faster than Hauger on his first lap.
Another wide moment at Turn 4 brought out some brief yellow flags courtesy of Daruvala. He was able to keep his momentum going to escape the gravel trap and continue his session. He made amends quickly, going second-fastest on his next lap and ahead of his PREMA Racing teammate.
Logan Sargeant, Jack Doohan, Jüri Vips and Ayumu Iwasa each were able to improve their times to bump Hauger down the order to ninth. Liam Lawson was able to make his way up the order, with consecutive laps taking him sixth and then fifth by the chequered flag. Pourchaire ended the session eight-fastest with Trident’s Calan Williams rounding out the top 10.
-
Maini brothers Arjun and Kush get ready for week-end
Bengaluru, 20 May 2022: The Formula 1 race week-end beginning today will see three top Indian racers in action. While top star Jehan Daruvala, considered as the next top Indian to be ready for F1, and younger of the Maini brothers, Kush Maini will be racing in F2 and F3 competitions respectively.
Meanwhile, the eldest of the Bangalore-based brothers, Arjun Maini, who switched to GT racing last year, now competes in the DTM series. Entering his second season in the pan European championship, Arjun now races with team HRT in the #36 Mercedes-AMG. Last year Arjun told this reporter that F1 is no more his target as he switched focus to endurance racing, and he loves it as much as he did the other form of sport. “I have developed a passion for endurance racing and I am enjoying it,” he said at Meco Kartopia, on the sidelines of karting Nationals.
Kush is still working his way up to Formula 1 and now races in FIA Formula 3 in the #12 MP Motorsports car. The brothers will, for the first time in 2022, compete simultaneously this weekend with Arjun racing at the Lausitzring in Germany and Kush in Barcelona as a support race for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.
The DTM Championship has changed significantly and features a record line up of 29 Drivers with iconic brands, such as Mercedes-AMG, Audi, BMW, Porsche, McLaren, Lamborghini and Ferrari, now locked in a seven-way championship battle for the Manufacturers’ title. The Competition in the series has gone up a few notches with the qualifying and racing action now closer than ever before as experienced at the first round at Portimão. The field is stacked with talent, with multiple World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb the latest in a long line of motorsport legends to try his hand in the series.
Despite finishing the season strongly with his first podium finish at the famed Norisring circuit, Arjun had a difficult start to the season in Portugal, but clearly found the pace in the second race where he made 12 positions after starting 25th.
“I am looking forward to racing at the Lausitzring again, especially because of the banked turn one corner,” Arjun commented ahead of the weekend.
“It makes the circuit very exciting and different and is a really distinctive feature for a European circuit. I was really quick here last year, but did not get the results I wanted. So, I want to make sure to get some decent results this year.
“We have been working hard since Portimão and I am confident that the team will provide me with a good car to fight for positions. Let’s see how it goes. I want to thank OSM (Omega Seiki Mobility) for supporting me for a second year.”
Kush meanwhile faces a completely different challenge in Barcelona. The younger of the two brothers spent a bulk of 2021 on the sidelines after two strong seasons in the BRDC Formula 3 Championship (now GB3) where he finished third and second in the championship respectively. Kush is now racing for MP Motorsport in the FIA F3 championship, where he faces the unenviable task of competing against 30 of the world’s best junior drivers while being scrutinized by several prominent F1 scouts.
Kush, who is currently 13th in the championship, will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of his elder brother, who became India’s first GP3 Series (the forerunner to FIA F3) race winner at the same venue in 2017.
“I’m looking forward to the upcoming weekend in Barcelona,” Kush said in the lead-up to his race in Spain.
“The Barcelona circuit is one of my favourites on the calendar, and I’m hoping to bring home some good points at the end of the weekend. We definitely have the pace to fight in the front, and with a little more luck, I believe we’d be higher up in the standings.
“Obviously, I’d like to emulate what Arjun did here, but for the time being, I’m keeping my head down and working with the team to maximize the car’s performance.”
“I want to thank JK racing and OSM (Omega Seiki Mobility) for all the support they have given me.”
Despite competing in vastly different championships and stages of their careers, the brothers appear to be united by a desire to compete against the world’s best drivers. One thing is certain: both drivers will give it their all this weekend!
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.
