- Kush Maini [Copyright: BRDC British F3]

British F3: Kush Maini takes maiden win in Race 2 at Rockingham

The Indian becomes the fourth to win a British F3 race from the country.

Darshan Chokhani posted in Motorsport India & World

3y ago

2.3K

The second round in the 2018 BRDC British Formula 3 for Lanan Racing’s Kush Maini and Double R Racing’s Krishnaraaj Mahadik in Rockingham was hampered with continuous rain during on Friday and Saturday respectively.

The four test sessions on Friday saw Maini top the final session after he finished eighth, ninth and 14th in the first three. At the same time, Mahadik was seventh, 10th, ninth and 10th respectively. The qualifying on Saturday morning was a close affair.

Maini finished sixth just ahead of countryman Mahadik with the former only 0.421s away from pole-sitter Fortec’s Tom Gamble. The British driver took a last-gasp pole from Double R Racing’s Linus Lundqvist and Carlin’s Clement Novalak.

Race 1

It was still wet on Saturday for the first race of the weekend. The first lap chaos meant Maini was forced to pit with damage - dropping him dead last, before he started to pull back. At the same time, Mahadik made the most of the first lap incidents to move up to fourth.

The Kolhapur-born driver stayed put for the rest of the 12 laps to claim his best finish of the season as Gamble took the win from Lundqvist and Douglas Motorsport’s Jordan Cane. Mahadik was comfortably ahead of Fortec’s Manuel Maldonado.

Meanwhile, Maini was 15th behind the safety car after his stop. Upon re-start, he shot up to 11th and gradually moved up to eighth by Lap 7. It was then a battle for seventh, but he was unable to find a way past Carlin’s Sun Yue Yang – the two separated by 0.911s over the line.

Race 2

It was relatively dry on Sunday morning for the weekend’s second race as Maini was to start from fifth while Mahadik was eighth in the reverse order. The Bangalorean wasted no time to storm into the lead at the end of the opening lap, with Mahadik moving to sixth.

With the conditions suiting well for Maini, he started to clock fastest laps to create a buffer of nearly five seconds with Carlin’s Nicolai Kjaergaard in second and Chris Dittmann Racing’s Chia Wing Hoong staying third but closely chased by Douglas Motorsport’s Jamie Chadwick.

There was no stopping Maini though as he finally delivered on the pre-season pace to win the race by a huge margin of 4.910s over Kjaergaard, as Lundqvist completed the podium. Maini became the first Indian to win an international race in 2018 and only the second in British F3 in the current spec.

Mahadik is the other winner who did it in 2017, while ex-Formula 1 drivers Narain Karthikeyan (1999) and Karun Chandhok (2003 in National Class) are the only other drivers to do it. Maini’s elder brother Arjun also won for Lanan but he took the victory when the series ran as British F4.

"I think in the first lap it was a case of keeping my nose clean," he said. "Like we knew from the start of the season, our pace in the dry is superior. I need to work on the wet, personally I don't have enough experience and don't drive so well in the wet but we knew in the dry as soon as we started the season, we had really good pace."

Meanwhile, Mahadik continued his fine run in the weekend to finish fourth after clearing Chadwick. The Indian missing on the podium by 1.703s while closing in on his teammate Lundqvist in the end stages of the 14-lap race.

Race 3

The final race had Maini starting from pole alongside Kjaergaard with Lundqvist and Carlin's Billy Monger in fourth. Mahadik was eighth on the grid. But it wasn't the best of starts for Maini as he lost out to a fast-starter Lundqvist who leapt into the lead.

Maini battled Kjaergaard but had to give way to drop to third. The positions remained the same even after the first safety car period. On re-start, Monger tried to pass Maini but had to ease off which dropped him behind Gamble and Mahadik - the latter making up places at the start.

Monger recovered to pass Mahadik, who then had to defend sixth with a train of cars behind. The Indian lost out to Maldonado, Novalak and Cane in the process to drop to ninth as the safety car was deployed for the second time.

With only handful of laps remaining then on, the battle for win was close but Lundqvist managed to hold on Kjaergaard by 0.260s, with Maini a further 0.378s behind to complete the podium - his second of the weekend.

Meanwhile, Mahadik finished eighth after Monger's retirement to cap off triple Top 10 finishes in the weekend. The drivers' standings has Lundqvist on top with 156 points, with Maini in fourth on 113 and Mahadik sixth with 82 to his name.

The championship now heads to Snetterton, where the teams completed an in-season testing prior to Rockingham, for Round 3 in the 2018 season during the May 25-27 weekend.

UPDATE: Post-race disqualification meant Mahadik was promoted to sixth in the order and has 86 points now.