British F3: Kush Maini ekes out two more podiums at Silverstone

While one of the Indian scored podiums, the other had a difficult time.

Darshan Chokhani posted in Motorsport India & World

3y ago

2.7K

It was a difficult practice run for Lanan Racing’s Kush Maini to start Round 4 in the 2018 BRDC British Formula 3 Championship, but the Indian fought back nicely to finish second in qualifying for Race 1 at Silverstone on Saturday.

Maini had provisional pole only to be beaten by Double R Racing’s Linus Lundqvist by 0.051s margin – this after the Swede’s initial fast lap was disallowed due to track limits. Carlin’s Clement Novalak was third after his lap was also disallowed.

For Double R Racing’s Krishnaraaj Mahadik, it was a difficult run on his first time at the circuit. The Indian had three of his quick laps deleted due to exceeding track limits which is why he could only manage a 15th position.

Race 1

It was a feisty battle for the race win on Saturday as Lundqvist and Maini went head-to-head in the 10-lap race all the way along. Both had good starts to lead the way with Lundqvist managing to stay ahead of Maini. The Indian then started to claw in on the brand new set of tyres.

He attempted a move on Lap 8 as they went wheel-to-wheel for few corners but Lundqvist managed to hold him off after Maini took the outside line at Luffield as the Indian had to settle with second, finishing 0.392s off Lundvqist. Douglas Jordan Cane completed the podium.

A massive thanks to Lanan Racing, they gave me such a good car today and definitely a car I could have won with. We finished second, which is not what we wanted. I definitely felt like I was quicker but through Maggots and Becketts it was really hard to follow so I had to give him a gap so I could attack into the last sector, but he had me covered."

The battle between Maini and Lundqvist had another consolation for the Indian as he set the new British F3 lap record at 1m56.921s on the resurfaced Silverstone circuit. Meanwhile, fellow countryman Mahadik had a much better run in the race.

The Kolhapur-born driver made up five places to be 10th at the end of the opening lap. He moved to ninth on the next lap after clearing Fortec’s Tom Gamble and had to fend him off for the rest of the race to secure the position.

Race 2

It wasn’t the best of starts for Maini in the second race from 16th after the Indian stopped at Village before he got going but was significantly down on the rest of the field, while Mahadik made a good start from ninth to be seventh at the end of the opening lap.

With no retirements in the race, Maini could only make up places with a handful of cars pitting for tyre and wing changes. The Bangalorean made up nearly 15 seconds but could only manage 14th, thereby losing points to Carlin’s Nicolai Kjaergaard and Lundqvist who were fourth and sixth respectively.

Maini’s fellow countryman Mahadik also had a difficult run after the Double R Racing driver was forced to pit for a wing change dropping him to last and 17th as his teammate Pavan Ravishankar won his maiden British F3 race from Carlin’s Sun Yue Yang and Gamble completing the Top 3.

Race 3

Maini had a slow start in the final race of the weekend from pole losing out to Gamble in the run-up to Turn 1. However, the Indian tried to fight back going wheel-to-wheel but had to surrender which helped Lundqvist sneak past for second.

In Maini had to defend from Kjaergaard while in the chase back to Gamble and Lundqvist. But it wasn't to be as the gaps were maintained all-through the race with Gamble taking his second win of the season from Lundqvist and Maini.

"The first race was good for us with promising speed," said Maini. "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."

Behind, Mahadik once again had a terrific start from 15th to move to ninth in the opening lap. But Fortec's Tristan Charpentier fought back to retake the position, dropping Mahadik to 10th where he would finish fending off Carlin's Yang.

Lundqvist has built on a good lead at the front with 324 points, sitting 56 points ahead of Kjaergaard while Maini keeps third with 227 to his name. Mahadik, meanwhile, dropped a place to be sixth with 153 points.

The season now heads to its lone overseas weekend at Spa-Francorchamps for Round 5 during the July 21-22 weekend.