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Hemanth Muddappa begins campaign with a triple; Alimon bags Unrestricted class
Chennai, 24 July 2022: Multiple Indian National champion Bengaluru’s Hemanth Muddappa (Mantra Racing) continued his domination in the MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Drag Racing Championship with a triple crown in the season-opener which concluded at the Madras International Circuit, here on Sunday.
Muddappa, the nine-times National champion, participating in four different categories, emerged triumphant in three (one of them a support race), but his exploits notwithstanding, it was Alimon Saidalvi (Bengaluru) who was the quickest rider over the weekend as he topped the Unrestricted category, clocking a blistering 07.775 seconds for the 302-metre dash on a Kawasaki Ninja.
Muddappa, astride a Suzuki Hayabusa, topped in the Super Sport 1051-1650cc category in which he has remained unbeaten over the past few years. Earlier, riding a BMW S1000RR, Muddappa was the quickest in the Super Sport 551-850cc category after winning in the Super Sport 851-1050cc support race atop a Kawasaki ZX6R machine.
Mumbai’s Hussain Khan won in the Super Sport Indian 361-550cc category ahead of Aiyaz from Bengaluru and local rider Bharath Raj.
The results (all 4-Stroke):
National Championship – Unrestricted: 1. Alimon Saidalvi (Bengaluru) (07.775secs); 2. Attaullah Baig (Bengaluru) (08.090s); 3. Siddharth Ratan Parmar (Mumbai) (08.254s).
Super Sport 1051-1650cc: 1. Hemanth Muddappa (Bengaluru, Mantra Racing) (08.228s); 2. Vignesh Purushotham (Bengaluru) (08.309s); 3. Hafizullah Khan (Bengaluru) (08.398s).
Super Sport 551-850cc: 1. Hemanth Muddappa (Bengaluru, Mantra Racing) (08.614s); 2. Siddharth Ratan Parmar (Mumbai) (08.788s); 3. Saurabh Parab (Mumbai) (09.086s).
Super Sport Indian 361-550cc: 1. Hussain Khan (Mumbai) (12.247s); 2. Aiyaz (Bengaluru) (12.350s); 3. Bharath Raj (Chennai) (12.691s).
Support race – Super Sport 851-1050cc: 1. Hemanth Muddappa (Bengaluru, Mantra Racing) (08.013s); 2. Khaja Awais Ahmed (Hyderabad) (08.281s); 3. Saurabh Parab (Mumbai) (08.325).
Support race – Super Sport 166-225cc: 1. Badhusha M (Chennai) (13.639s); 2. Srikkanth P (Bengaluru) (14.054s); 3. Karthik M (Chennai) (15.324s).
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Stunning 3rd for Harith Noah in SS2 at FIM Baja Aragon
Teruel (Spain), 24 July 2022: Sherco TVS Factory Racing rider Harith Noah recorded a stunning top-3 in one of the stages in a field of 163 riders and successfully completed the cross-country rally in Overall fifth place, in Baja Spain Aragon, the fourth round of the FIM Bajas World Cup that concluded here on Sunday. In the FIM 450cc class for bikes, Noah was placed fourth.
Achieving a career-best third in SS2 in the FIM Bajas World Cup round, the rider from Kerala, put in excellent performance and missed the podium by a few minutes as he finished 5th overall. Astride a Sherco 450, the 29-year TVS Racing talent is taking part in the prestigious annual event that is now a round of both the FIA and FIM Bajas World Cup. Beginning the 6-km prologue cautiously trailing in 16th, Harith Noah switched up pace and moved up 13 places with a stunning ride in SS2 that launched him to P3. However, tough and dangerous terrain curtailed his further dash to the front as he had to be content with an 8th place in SS1 (02:45:56.0). “The track was a bit dangerous as the cars had passed already and that made many rocks pop out on to the track. Focus was to complete the stage safely,” said Noah, who attacked once again on the last Sector for which he preserved his best. Clocking 2:07:26.0 on the last day, he sealed the fourth place in the stage for an overall fifth.
He finished the last day’s ‘competitive special’ of 159 km between Banon and Teruel and moved up to a brilliantly in the Overall classification in Group 1 (Category 1) of the FIM Bajas World Cup for 450cc bikes. He clocked a total time of 8hours, 07minutes and 33.0seconds. With his Sherco teammates Lorenzao Santolino and Rui Goncalves finishing second and third, Noah made it three bikes in top-5 for the Sherco-TVS combo that missed the top-spot by just about 5 minutes.
Performing consistently on all three days, Harith Noah dished out high-standard riding to shoot into top-3 on Saturday, the Day 2. “For the first time I am back on the rally bike after the last Dakar. I felt so good to be back riding at an international event. The hard-pack tracks made it fun to slide around and I enjoyed it. It was a great experience and like always, I have learned a lot and hope to fine tune my skills from this rich experience,” said the Shoranur star. “It was a great feeling to be able to finish one of the stages with the front pack and the bike proved to be good,” the 29-year star told INDIAinF1 from Spain.
The gruelling race that traversed over 400 km in the Selective Sector on Saturday morning with another 200 plus km in the evening presented a technically tough route but Harith Noah who thrives on routes that offer difficult navigational challenges, took to his liking and posted a stunning 5:50:09.0.
The Kerala rider is the fastest Indian at the Dakar as he beat CS Santolsh’s record and joined KP Aravind, in the elite club of three from India, that finished Dakar successfully. Harith Noah will be back to his training for the 2023 Dakar next January.
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Jehan’s rich haul with 2nd in Sprint & 7th in Feature race: F2
The 23-year-old leaves the Paul Ricard weekend with a strong haul of points
Le Castellet (France) 24 July 2022: Indian racer Jehan Daruvala scored his sixth podium of the season in the French round of the Formula 2 championship, as he left the Paul Ricard track with yet another strong points-scoring weekend.
Jehan started Saturday’s Sprint race from pole position and after a lightning start led into the first corner. He was comfortably holding his own at the front when an incident involving three cars brought out the safety car.
Jehan timed the restart to perfection, allowing him to open up a small gap to second-placed Liam Lawson. But the latter’s superior straight-line speed allowed him to close in.
It looked like it would only be a matter of time before Lawson used his car’s superior speed down the straights to get past Jehan and sure enough the Kiwi swept around the outside into Turn 1.
Jehan held his line but the pair touched which opened up a tear on Jehan’s front tyre. But he fortunately didn’t suffer a puncture.
A few laps later Marcus Armstrong attempted to pass Jehan for second at the same corner but on the inside. They made contact but Jehan, forced wide across the chicane, kept his position.
He had to slow down significantly, however, to give up any advantage he may have gained, which allowed Lawson to pull clear at the front.
Armstrong was handed a five-second penalty for forcing Jehan off the track
On Sunday, Jehan started the Feature race from 10th on the grid. But he fought his way up to seventh as a combination of strategy, which put Jehan in the lead before his stops, and blistering speed after his late switch to fresh tyres, saw him climb up the order.
Jehan said, “It’s good to be back on the podium after what happened in Silverstone and Austria. We were struggling with pace down the straights but had some good battles to finish 2nd. We would have finished even higher in the Feature race with our strategy to run a long first stint but we gambled on a safety car and stayed out a bit longer than ideal. Other than that, it was a solid weekend for us. We still have some areas to work on and I’m confident we’ll come back stronger next weekend in Hungary.”
Jehan’s second-place finish in France was his fifth this season. The 23-year-old, who races for Italian team Prema, was robbed of a potential fourth F2 victory by a post-race penalty in the last round in Austria.
The Red Bull-backed racer, who earlier this week completed a second Formula One test with McLaren, now heads to Hungary, the last round of a busy month of racing before the annual summer break.
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Jinendra Sangave wins MiniGP historic races; Shreyas wins hearts
Bengaluru, 23 July 2022: Kolhapur’s Jinendra Kiran Sangave displayed calmness and plenty of skill to create history as he won a double in the first Road-to-MotoGP international event for young riders under-14 years in India, the FIM MiniGP World Series India 2022 at the Meco Kartopia circuit, here on Saturday.
Jinendra, 13, held off Shreyas Hareesh, who is popularly known as “The Bengaluru Kid” in both the 15-lap races with Chennai’s 13-year old Rakshith S Dave, trailing the front-running duo in third place. The trio dominated the field through the weekend with some fearless riding and filled the podium spots in both races.
“I am thrilled and very happy to have won the first round. This is new bike and new championship and I am learning to improve my riding skills and adapt to the bike. This bike helps me to dream,” said a visibly pleased Jinendra, who switched over to Hindi, unable to control the emotional delight. It was a treat to watch both the rivals on track meet after the race. “I am not disappointed. I tried my best. It is not my day. Actually I would have crashed,” said the 11-year old Shreyas, who spoke like a mature rider, but he never misses a chance to have fun with his co-riders. The amazing maturity he showed on the bike, with great control and balance, to avoid a high side is proof enough that he would go places, if groomed properly. His great save in Race 2, two corners after the blind left, speak volumes about his riding skills. This is a perfect launch for the Bengaluru kid, who gave himself a birthday gift, three days ahead of July 26. But he would be having three more years in this championship which is wonderful prospect to go after his MotoGP dream.
From left: Shreyas Hareesh, 2nd, Jinendra Sangave, winner and Rakshith Dave, 3rd in both the inaugural two races in the MiniGP India series at Meco Kartopia on Saturday. The surprise packet of the day, was 12-year Nithila Das, from Bengaluru. A champion cycling talent, her foray into motorsports went unnoticed at the National Road races at the Madras International Circuit in the TVS one-make championship as the only girl. But on Saturday, the Trivandrum-born 6th standard student of Chinmaya Vidyalaya in Bengaluru, is the lone girl among four who competed, to complete both the races in sixth and fifth positions, respectively. Rest of the three girls, were allowed to do only three laps each as they failed to come within the time of the fastest rider’s 115 per cent, a rule that is place for safety reasons.
Jinendra and Shreyas, who had qualified for pole position, put on a thrilling contest marked by slight contacts at high speeds, but both displayed tremendous skill to stay astride their respective Italian Ohvale mini bikes. Jinendra’s calmness eventually helped him to get past Shreyas.
Jinendra Sangave, defended well and cleverly outfoxed the young rival to win both the races in the inaugural MiniGP India series round at Meco Kartopia on Sunday. The Bengaluru schoolboy, who, despite posting fastest laps in both the races, paid the price for small errors, while surviving a huge moment in the second outing when he averted a potential high-side.
The pace in the second race was particularly stunning. As in the first race, Shreyas led at the start but yielded ground to an aggressive and a bit more experienced Jinendra who never held back in attacking the corner or exploiting the slightest of openings Shreyas presented.
The weekend programme was compressed for an early finish in view of the inclement weather with spells of showers and consequent safety issues on a wet track. Thus, both races were completed on Saturday.
The FIM MiniGP World Series India is part of the global programme, comprising a total of 15 countries, and initiated by the FIM, the World governing body for two-wheeler racing, in conjunction with Dorna Sports, promoters of the FIM MotoGP.
The FIM launched the MiniGP Series in 2021, as part of the Road To MotoGP programme, aiming to create an equal platform for young riders around the World to begin their motorcycle racing careers.
The results:
Race-1 (15 laps): 1. Jinendra Kiran Sangave (Kolhapur) (16mins, 39.078secs); 2. Shreyas Hareesh (Bengaluru) (16:39.261); 3. Rakshith S Dave (Chennai) (16:52.251).
Race-2 (15 laps): 1. Jinendra Kiran Sangave (16:00.218); 2. Shreyas Hareesh (16:01.277); 3. Rakshith S Dave (16:24.502).
Qualifying (top 4): 1. Shreyas Hareesh (01:03.369); 2. Jinendra Sangave (01:03.641); 3. Rakshith Dave (01:04.103); 4. Nandanan Mahendran (Chennai) (01:04.603).
Caption: Podium – Winner Jinendra Sangave (centre), second-placed Shreyas Hareesh (left) and third-placed Rakshith Dave at Meco Kartopia on 24 July 2022.
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French GP: Leclerc secures pole from Verstappen after Sainz’s help
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc takes F1 French GP pole after help from Carlos Sainz, as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were second and third.
Q1:
The first part in F1 French GP qualifying at Paul Ricard was relatively smooth which saw Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc lead the way with a 1m31.727s lap with teammate Carlos Sainz in third behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the Top 3.
There was a spin for Williams’ Alexander Albon late in the session but the Thai still managed to make it in Q2. Haas’ Mick Schumacher jumped to Top 10 but track limits at Turn 3 meant his fast lap was deleted which knocked him out of Q1.
The German ended up 19th with a 1m33.701s, but neither Schumacher nor Haas were convinced about the deletion even though he did cross the white line. Another to be knocked out in 16th was AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly with a 1m33.439s lap.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in 17th set the same time as he complained of traffic, with Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu (1m33.674s) 18th, Schumacher 19th and Williams’ Nicholas Latifi (1m33.794s) 20th.
Q2:
The second part in F1 French GP saw Ferrari’s Sainz set an early lap of 1m31.081s with teammate Leclerc going faster late in the session but still ending up 0.135s short from his teammate. He pipped F1 title rival Verstappen, though.
Late laps from several drivers pushed McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo (1m32.922s) out of the Top 10 in 11th, where he was only 0.086s short of making it into Q3. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon (1m33.048s) showed better pace than practice to be 12th.
Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas (1m33.052s) ended up 13th, with Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel (1m33.276s) in 14th as he fulfilled his quest of making it into Q2 for the weekend, while Williams’ Albon (1m33.307s) rounded out the Q2 runners in 15th.
Q3:
The final part in F1 French GP qualifying saw Sainz help teammate Leclerc with slipstream on their first flying lap, which allowed the Monegasque to end up 0.008s quicker than Verstappen and secure provisional pole after his 1m31.209s lap.
The Spaniard did not set a lap time on his first run and returned to the track to help Leclerc again during the second and final run. That allowed the Monegasque to set a 1m30.872s lap to secure F1 French GP pole by 0.304s difference over Verstappen (1m31.176s).
Perez (1m31.335s) ended up a decent third after a difficult start to the weekend as Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton (1m31.765s) ended up fourth ahead of teammate George Russell (1m32.131s) who was pushed to sixth after McLaren’s Lando Norris (1m32.032s) jumped to fifth.
Alpine’s Fernando Alonso (1m32.552s) was seventh from AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda (1m32.780s), as both Sainz and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen did not set a lap time considering they have engine penalty.
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Sindy hoists AS Motorsports flag high; Aiyaz, Chandra, Madhan win
Chennai, 23 July 2022: Active motorsports couple Soundari ‘Sindy’ and her tuner Ananthraj ‘Andy’ combined successfully to hoist the AS Motorsports flag high taking the honours in the Girls ‘Stock up to 165cc’ category in the first round of the MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Drag Racing Championship 2022 which commenced at the rechristened Madras International Circuit (MIC) here on Saturday. Bengaluru’s Chandra Shekar N topped in the Super Sport Indian up to 165cc while local rider Madhan Kumar and Aiyaz of Bengaluru also won their respective classes.
Ananthraj and Soundari, the proud motorsports couple! “This win is awesome and it is an unforgettable moment for me as a rider. It is also special for me because, as a rider I won and got my husband his first tuner trophy. As a couple it is a historic day for us. Today the bike setup is perfect and competing with competitive young girls as a mom, makes that feeling great,” said Sindy, who also volunteers as an active official for many motorsports events.
The Drag Nationals promoted by Madras Motor Sports Club (MMSC) under the aegis of the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (fmsci) has attracted a record 145 entries as the 2022 season got off to a bright start with Soundari, popular known as Sindy, edging out Puducherry’s Lani Zena Fernandez of RACR Castrol Power 1, in a close battle with a tenth of a second separating the two. Mumbai’s Sarah Khan of Axor Sparks Racing completed the podium.
Chandra Shekar was in his elements in winning from Bharath Raj of Rockers Racing from Chennai with another Bengalurean, Gowtham R finishing third fastest in the Super Sport Indian upto 165cc class.
Bengaluru’s Aiyaz wins 2-stroke Super Sport (131-165cc) class.
All photos by Srinivasa Krishnan/INDIAinF1Aiyaz from Bengaluru emerged a comfortable winner in the 2-stroke Super Sport (131-165cc) category ahead of Madhan Kumar R of Chennai and Abudul Shaikh, also from Bengaluru, finished third.
Madhan Kumar, however, came up trumps in the 2-stroke Super Sport (up to 130cc) category with local rider Aravind Ganesh of AP Motorsports taking second ahead of Abdul Shaikh of Bengaluru in third.
The two-day event concludes on Sunday, July 24, which will see races in six more categories, including the high-end Above 1000cc class and the Unrestricted Open where 9-time National Champion, Hemanth Muddappa, is set to begin his campaign in four different classes.
The (Provisional) results :
4-Stroke – Girls (Stock Up to 165cc): 1. Soundari Ananthraj (Chennai, AS Motorsports) (16.491secs); 2. Lani Zena Fernandez (Puducherry, RACR Castrol Power 1) (16.571s); 3. Sarah Khan (Mumbai, Axor Sparks Racing) (17.023s).
Super Sport Indian (up to 165cc): 1. Chandra Shekar N (Bengaluru) (13.989s); 2. Bharath Raj (Chennai, Rockers Racing) (14.292s); 3. Gowtham R (Bengaluru) (14.469s).
2-Stroke – Super Sport Up to 130cc: 1. Madhan Kumar R (Chennai) (13.449s); 2. Aravind Ganesh (Chennai, AP Motorsports) (13.582s); 3. Abdul Shaikh (Bengaluru) (13.777s).
Super Sport 131-165cc: 1. Aiyaz (Bengaluru) (12.845s); 2. Madhan Kumar R (Chennai) (13.310s); 3. Abdul Shaikh (Bengaluru) (13.313s).
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French GP: Verstappen fastest in FP3 from Ferrari pair
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen led the Ferrari pair in FP3 of F1 French GP, with Carlos Sainz in second from Charles Leclerc.
It was rather somber FP3 session in F1 French GP with only one major spin involving Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc early in the session. There was another yellow flag later in the session seemingly for Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, but no replays were shown.
There were some kerb moments for other drivers as well, with Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas having a slightly bigger one. In the strategy game, Red Bull kept it late to go for a soft tyre run, with both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez doing so in the last 10 minutes.
Verstappen eventually topped FP3 of F1 French GP with a 1m32.272s lap as he led the Ferrari pair where Carlos Sainz (1m32.626s) was second and Leclerc (1m32.909s) in third. The Spaniard will start from back after expectedly taking new power unit elements.
Sainz took his fourth Internal Combustion Engine, Turbo Charger, MGU-H and MGU-K, which was same for Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, with the Dane to start from the back too. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton (1m33.255s) was in a respectable fourth.
He managed to stay ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez (1m33.293s) who was fifth from Mercedes’ George Russell (1m33.376s), as Alpine’s Fernando Alonso’s (1m33.505s) late lap put him seventh ahead of Williams’ Alexander Albon (1m33.558s) who put himself in a handsome spot in eighth.
The Top 10 was rounded out by McLaren’s Lando Norris (1m33.669s) and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda (1m33.751s), as after the late lap from Alonso pushed McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo to 11th. Having struggled on Friday, Williams’ Nicholas Latifi found a sweet spot to be 12th.
AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was 13th, a bit down from his Friday pace, with Alfa Romeo pair of Bottas and Zhou Guanyu in 14th and 15th. Haas’ Magnussen was 16th from Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, who continued to have a low-key weekend.
The other Haas of Mick Schumacher was in the same spot as Ocon to be 19th behind Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, while his teammate Sebastian Vettel was 20th on the medium tyres as a floor damage kept him in the garage for most part of the session.
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Sherco’s Goncalves takes lead; Harith, Aishwarya begin 6-km Prologue
Teruel, 22 July 2022: Rui Gonçalves has started his participation in the Baja España Aragón AVATEL Trophy with victory in the prologue stage that has been played in the surroundings of Teruel. The pilot de Sherco was the fastest in the six timed kilometers of the special.
The Portuguese rider has thrown in 3’6” Tosha Schareina (KTM) while Lorenzo Santolino has occupied the third position at 5’2”.
“This Baja is very intense, it It goes very fast and physically it is very hard. Starting position for tomorrow is good and I hope I don’t have dust on a day when many things can happen,” he said. Santolino.
In the Quads category, Jerome Connart has set the best time with 19” of advantage over Dani Vila and Kevin Giroud, second and third respectively in this prologue stage. Today, Friday, has also been the opportunity to see the premiere of the category Trail, with Iván Cervantes leading in the Trail 600cc while Joan Pedrero has led in the Maxi Trail.
This Saturday the rest of the categories will start at 7:46 a.m. on a day that It will have two specials and 400 timed kilometers. Nasser Al-Attiyah, four-time winner will be one of the favorites in the car category along with Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Dutchman Erik Van Loon. “I am very happy to be here again and I have come to enjoy the race again. It’s a really tough ride but I’m going to fight for victory”, stated the Qatari at the official press conference held this afternoon at the Exhibition and Congress Pavilion of Teruel.
Early report
The 38th edition of the Baja España Aragón got underway today afternoon from 17.34 hours (9.04pm IST) with the 6-km prologue stage for only bikes where Sherco TVS factory Racing team riders from India, Aishwarya Pissay and Harith Noah took the start on Friday.
After the teams have completed the second and final day of technical and
administrative checks, the bike category kicks off the race with a 6-kilometre prologue stage on a route close to Teruel and the Service Park.From Saturday early morning, the rest of the field will join the action with a day of 402 kilometres against the clock divided into two special stages. It will be the longest day of the rally.
On Sunday, the crews will tackle a 159-kilometre special stage, the last one of the 38th edition.
The Baja España Aragón Trofeo AVATEL will run through 38 municipalities in the regions of Teruel, Jiloca and Albarracín. We would like to advise all spectators stay in high and safe places while following the race and respect the indications of the marshals along the track.
Sherco TVS Racing bikes #11 of Harith Noah, #1 of Lorenzo Santolino and Rui Goncalves get ready for the Prologue on Friday evening. Earlier on 18 July, Monday the 38th Edition was presented:
The 38th edition of the Baja España Aragón Trofeo AVATEL, which will take place from 22nd to 24th July, has been presented to the public. The official presentation of the event took place in the Salón de la Muralla of the Government of Aragon’s headquarters in Teruel, in the presence of Arturo Aliaga, Vice President of the Government of Aragon and Regional Minister for Industry, Competitiveness and Business Development of the Government of Aragon. “This event has been organised keeping in mind that we all have to work to project the image of being capable of organising one of the best of the eight World Cup events. We hope the Baja will live up to its reputation.”
The presentation was also attended by Manuel Rando, President of the Provincial Council of Teruel, Manuel Aviñó, President of the Spanish Automobile Federation, Javier Domingo, Councillor for Tourism, Education and Festivities of the City Council of Teruel, Xavier Bartrolí, President of Octagon Esedos and Roche Murciano, President of the Provincial Association of Teruel Tourist Entrepreneurs.
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French GP: Sainz heads Leclerc in a Ferrari 1-2 in FP2
Ferrari pair of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc led the way in F1 French GP with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen ending up third.
The FP2 in F1 French GP at Paul Ricard saw similar FP1-like moments for few drivers as drivers took a bit more liberty at a track which consists of tarmac run-offs, enabling them to re-join the circuit without the fear of losing out as much.
Haas’ Mick Schumacher had a spin at Turn 11 but the German managed to avoid the barriers, while teammate Kevin Magnussen managed to save himself from going off. At the front, the Ferrari pair set the pace with Carlos Sainz (1m32.527s) leading.
The Spaniard is not using his full engine considering he has take a new one but despite that he managed to beat teammate Charles Leclerc (1m32.628s), with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen (1m33.077s) slotting in third. The Mercedes pair ended up fourth and fifth behind them.
George Russell (1m33.291s) was ahead in fourth from Lewis Hamilton (1m33.517s), who was back in the cockpit to start his 300th grand prix weekend. McLaren’s Lando Norris (1m33.607s) was sixth on his second fast lap after losing out the first time due to a minor moment.
AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly (1m33.906s) did well in seventh with Magnussen (1m33.928s) in eighth despite the Haas car not having any updates. McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo (1m33.984s) was ninth from Red Bull’s Sergio Perez (1m34.060s), who seemingly lacked pace overall.
Much like him, the Alpine pair seemed in similar boat with Fernando Alonso in 11th and Esteban Ocon way down in 18th. Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas returned to the cockpit as well in 12th with Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel ending up in 13th.
His teammate Lance Stroll was 15th behind AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, as Williams’ Alexander Albon was only 16th after a good show in FP1. Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu was 17th from Ocon, Schumacher and Williams’ Nicholas Latifi.
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Four girls, 11 boys all set for FIM MiniGP India Series
Bengaluru, 22 July 2022: The inaugural FIM MiniGP World Series India 2022 will kickstart at the Meco Kartopia track here on Saturday with a full grid of 15 riders, including four girls, and all aged between 10-14 years, taking the start. A card of two races has been scheduled for the event.
The riders, who were shortlisted after a couple of rounds of trials earlier this month, are: Darshit Chetan Chavan (10 years), Sahil Vaibhav Shelukar (11) and Yash Shinde (12), all from Pune; Rehbar Baktoo (11) from New Delhi; Shreyas Hareesh (11), Dev Agastya (11), Nithila Das (12), Aleena Mansur Sheikh (11) and Anastya Pol (12), all from Bengaluru; Nandanan Mahendran (11), KR Kabilesh (12), Rakshith S Dave (13) and Rakshitha S Dave (13), all from Chennai; Jinendra Kiran Sangave (13), from Kolhapur; and Muhammed Zain Correya (13), from Kochi.
Quite a few of these riders have been taking part in various categories of the National Championships with some of them even achieving podium finishes. As such, keen competition is expected in the FIM MiniGP World Series India.
Rakshith S Dave of Chennai at the Meco Kartopia trials recently. Free practice and qualifying sessions will be held on Saturday between 10.40 am and 3.25 pm. Two races of 15 laps each have also been scheduled.
The series will be held on karting tracks that meet minimum standards set by the FIM or the national federation, with Bengaluru (3 rounds) and Hyderabad (2 rounds) being the venues. The top two riders, classified by total points scored after 10 races, will participate in the World Finals to be held in Valencia, Spain, during the final round of the FIM MotoGP World Championship in November.
All riders will compete on equal Ohvale GP-0 160 machinery (Mini bikes), manufactured in Italy, while Pirelli is the official single tyre supplier for all the FIM MiniGP World Series.
The FIM MiniGP World Series India is part of the global programme, comprising a total of 15 countries, and initiated by the FIM, the World governing body for two-wheeler racing, in conjunction with Dorna Sports, promoters of the FIM MotoGP.
The FIM launched the MiniGP Series in 2021, as part of the Road To MotoGP programme, aiming to create an equal platform for young riders around the World to begin their motorcycle racing careers.
Fmsci president Akbar Ebrahim said: “We begin a new journey this weekend with the FIM MiniGP World Series India 2022. It is a programme designed to help young riders take first steps towards achieving their short and long-term racing goals. There is no dearth of talent in India and we are sure that the youngsters will take advantage of this platform to showcase their talent and skill.”
Marco Rossetto, Product Manager, Ohvale, India, said: “We are happy to present a full grid of 15 riders for the FIM MiniGP World Series India. Four of these riders are girls. Hopefully, for next year, the girls will fill up all the five spots that we have reserved for them in the grid of 15. Through this series, we provide a platform for talented young riders and it is our earnest hope that one day in future, we will see an Indian rider in the FIM MotoGP World Championships.”
