Day 1 of the JK Tyre Polo R Cup 2014 saw some crashes as Race 1 began its first lap. On the first lap, at the first turn Anshul Shah drove off the track and lost his grip, hitting Lee Keshav’s car and toppled. Lee Keshav’s car in turn hit Yatin Magu and as a result, all three were forced to retire from the race. The safety car was brought in from the second lap till the fourth lap allowing Karthik Tharani to keep his lead safe. As the race restarted, Karthik managed to keep his lead over the remaining two laps and held back an aggressive Anindith Reddy in second. Guest driver Andre Gies crossed the line in third in his first appearance on India’s Formula 1 circuit at the Buddh International Circuit (BIC) in Greater Noida on the outskirts of Delhi.
But just before the second race of the day started, the weather conditions changed and a light drizzle forced the drivers to shift to wet tyres. The delay caused due to the shift forced a rolling start to the Race 2. Guest driver Ameya Bafna owned the race as he finished on the top after starting third on the grid. He made a move on the second lap itself and took the lead which he retained all the way till the end. The hero of the second race however was Race 1 winner Karthik Tharani who steadily moved from eighth position at the start of the race to second position by the second last lap and managed to hold it to the finish line. Angad Singh Matharoo finished off the podium in third position.
With these results, Karthik Tharani clinched maximum points in both the races (Ameya Bafna being guest driver was not entitled for championship points) and has moved up to second spot in the championship while Karminder Pal Singh, who has been leading the championship after Round 3, still retains his lead 33 points ahead of Karthik. Bonnie Thomas stands third in the points tally with one race to go for the end of the season. Angad Singh Matharoo and Anindith Reddy hold fourth and fifth spots in the championship respectively.
Race 3 of Polo R Cup 2014 season’s last round will be held on December 14, 2014 (tomorrow) at the BIC with top five drivers within 60 points of each other.
Sirish Vissa, Head of Volkswagen Motorsport India, commented “The drivers have been showing consistent improvement on their driving and today we saw the fastest lap times here at BIC since we started. This is a clear indication how the drivers are developing and improving their pace from one weekend to the other.” He further added, “The last race tomorrow is expected to bring in more action as we still have the Championship open for top five drivers. This is one of the closest competitions in a season that we have seen so far.”
Volkswagen Polo R Cup Round 4 Race 1
Sr. No.
Name
Total Time
1
Karthik Tharani
23:02.546
2
Anindith Reddy Konda
23:03.129
3
Karminder Pal Singh
23:05.761
4
Angad Singh Matharoo
23:06.544
5
Ameya Bafna
23:07.306
6
Gaurav Anil Mehta
23:09.910
7
Mahatru Mahadev Krishnamurthy
23:11.307
8
Ishaan Dodhiwala
23:11.403
9
Bonnie Thomas
23:11.992
10
Utsav Shah
23:15.351
11
Prabhanjan Paruchuri
23:17.956
12
AmlandeepBora
23:18.556
13
Raaj Sivaram
23:20.654
14
Rajeev Srivastava
23:21.815
15
Raghav Sharma
23:25.377
16
Harkishan Wadia
23:27.998
17
Amit Mete
23:28.692
18
Venkatesh Shreyas
23:34.511
19
Lee Keshav Gupta
DNF
20
Anshul Shah
21
Yatin Magu
Volkswagen Polo R Cup Round 4 Race 2
21:54.289
22:00.037
22:02.525
22:03.331
Andre Gies
22:10.477
22:11.034
22:14.286
22:15.108
22:17.510
22:22.722
22:28.745
22:33.123
22:37.285
22:41.227
22:58.742
23:01.365
23:53.297
23:57.704
24:00.357
23:40.209
22
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