In the second race of the MRF
1600 championship, reverse grid pole sitter Alex Bora held on to the lead at
the start only to lose out to Chatterjee in the opening lap. Nayan Chatterjee
put in an inspired effort to hold off Anindith Reddy to win his first ever race
of the series.
Starting on pole position,
Schumacher got the perfect start to lead into the first corner, with front-row
starter Newey once again losing out at the start, this time to Joey Mawson.
Newey briefly got past Mawson down the main straight only for the Australian to
take the position back going into corner 4. As Mawson and Newey continued to
battle, Schumacher pulled away at the front. Schumacher crossed the finish line
in 1st place, taking his 2nd win in 3 races. Mawson fended off Newey to finish
in 2nd place. Drugovich finished in a lonely 4th place, ahead of Rinus Van
Kalmthout, Juri Vips and Pedro Cardoso.
The second race of the day
provided all the action. Newey made a
perfect start to lead the race, as there was a big battle behind between Aron,
Mawson and Schumacher for second place. Schumacher tried to pass Mawson but
both drivers collided, dropping Mawson to 8th. Schumacher closed in on Aron and
both went wide coming out of turn 3, allowing Drugovich to go past. As
Schumacher was passing Aron, he clipped Drugovich who had turned into turn 4.
Both Schumacher and Drugovich retired on the spot, bringing out the safety car
in the process. The race finished under safety car with Newey winning ahead of
Aron and Mawson. Behind them Cardoso finished in 4th place, ahead of Schramm
and Van Kalmthout.
Mick Schumacher was happy to
continue his impressive form at the BIC. He commented, “I had a good start and
with both these guys (Newey and Mawson) battling behind me I had the chance to
pull away. It is a shame about the last race but am pretty happy about the
entire weekend.”
Harrison Newey commented, “I
have had trouble with my starts the entire weekend so it was good to finally
have a good start. I have had the pace in all the races but tough to overtake
here. This is a good way to end the weekend”
In the second race of the MRF
1600 championship, Reddy passed Bora and started to close in on Chatterjee and
on lap 4 got past him to take the lead. The next two laps saw an intense battle
ensue with both drivers trading places at the front. With 3 laps to go
Chatterjee took the lead and stayed in front to take his first victory in the
championship. Reddy finished in 2nd place with Race 1 winner Ananth Shanmugam
recovering well to finish in a creditable 3rd place. Anshul Shah finished in
4th place ahead of Bora and Arya Singh.
MRF Challenge 2016, Round 3, New Delhi, Race 3:
Pos Driver Name Total
Time
1 Mick Schumacher 22:22.305
2 Joey Mawson 22:26.311
3 Harrison Newey 22:27.580
4 Felipe Drugovich 22:37.090
5 Rinus van Kalmthout 22:39.029
6 Juri Vips 22:40.895
7 Pedro Cardoso 22:42.345
8 Ralf Aron 22:44.168
9 Dylan Young 22:53.981
10 Kimi Schramm 22:54.568
MRF Challenge 2016, Round 3, New Delhi, Race 4:
Pos Driver Name Total
Time
1 Harrison Newey 30:30.191
2 Ralf Aron 30:31.155
3 Joey Mawson 30:31.549
4 Pedro Cardoso 30:31.878
5 Kimi Schramm 30:32.410
6 Rinus van Kalmthout 30:32.654
7 Dylan Young 30:34.182
8 Manuel Maldonado 30:34.637
9 Pavan Ravishanker 30:36.030
10 Yoshiaki Katayama 30:43.053
MRF 1600, Round 1, New Delhi, Race 2:
Pos Driver Name Total
Time
1 Nayan Chatterjee 17:21.448
2 Anindith Reddy 17:24.780
3 Ananth Shanmugam 17:27.097
4 Anshul Shah 17:38.250
5 Alex Bora 17:43.914
In its fifth year, the MRF
Challenge will feature MRF Formula 2000 race cars, which have been made in
India by JA Motorsport, who are based in Coimbatore. The Formula 3 style car
has been built by JA Motorsport in technical collaboration with Dallara, and is
considered to be the fastest of its kind in Asia. The new car is powered by a 2
litre Mountune Duratec engine with max power of 230 bhp and shod on MRF Z.L.O.
tyres. The car will also feature advanced aerodynamics with underbody diffuser
and a Hewland 6-speed sequential gearbox.
This year the grid has yet
another promising line-up headed by the returning Newey and Schumacher. Joining
them is German F4 Champion Joey Mawson, 2015 Italian F4 Champion and F3 race
winner Ralf Aron, Japanese F3 Champion (National Class) Yoshiaki Katayama and
Manuel Maldonado, cousin of former F1 race winner Pastor Maldonado.
MRF Challenge 2016 Calendar:
Rounds 1 to 3 held in Bahrain,
Dubai and BIC respectively are over. Round 4: February 17-19, 2017, Chennai,
Madras Motor Race Track