It was great start for the weekend for Kush Maini as he placed his car sixth in the qualifying event on Friday. This meant that he would start the sprint race on Saturday from P5 and feature race on Sunday from P6. Formula 2 is highest rung of the feeder series that brings the best of the talent from the world together for the final step up to formula 1.
Formula 2 races with Formula 1 on 14 of the weekends in 2023 with a sprint race normally on Saturday and the feature race on Sunday before the main race of Formula 1.
In the Feature Race on Sunday, Kush Maini got a great start and climbed to second from sixth on the grid into the first corner. An incident on first lap behind Maini saw the safety car being deployed. Racing resumed on Lap 4 and Pourchaire moved clear once again ahead of Maini, Ralph Boschung and Bearman. Campos Racing opted to split its strategy with Boschung on softs and he put a move on the hard-shod Maini at Turn 1 to take second from his teammate.
Leclerc fought back against Bearman on Lap 16, making a late dive down the inside at Turn 1 to take fifth from the Briton. Maini followed through later on the same lap with DRS at Turn 11.
Leclerc was under pressure from Maini which told on Lap 19. The DAMS driver went deep under braking for Turn 10, giving Maini the momentum on the subsequent DRS straight to take third. Bearman and Iwasa piled on the pain, relegating Leclerc to 6th on Lap 20.
Maini held onto the last podium position with two laps to go but degradation on tyres was too high. Kush ultimately finished 4th in the feature race. “I learnt from my mistake at the start of sprint race and had a great start for the feature race and moved from sixth into second by the second corner. I had a very steady pace on prime tyres and after the pitstop I re-joined in middle of the traffic. I used up more than I should have for my tyres to fight my way back into P3 but the tyres gave way with few laps to go and I had to settle for P4. Huge learning on my debut weekend”.
Kush Maini, backed by Mumbai Falcons, JK Tyre and Omega Seiki Mobility, put together an impressive Qualifying session on debut for Campos Racing, ending the session sixth-fastest. The Indian admitted he was a little bit more nervous than usual, owing to the fact he was confident that there was a good performance within both himself and the car.
“It was a nerve-wrecking session. I knew from testing and since I’ve driven this car that it suits my driving style, and I know that the Campos cars are really good. I knew that if we put everything together, we could be in the mix and that’s what made it more stressful.”
“I’m super happy. I did some good laps. Both were good enough for P6 I think. We did a one-lap strategy on both sets, so we have good tyres for the races and I’m looking forward to it. Now that all the weight is off my shoulders, I feel a lot more confident. I always knew I could fight with the best in the world, so it felt good to be up there.”
Kush stands fourth in drivers’ championship after round 1 with 14 points to his credit. His team Campos stands at P1 with 42 points. The next race will be held in Saudi Arabia from 17th to 19th March alongside Formula 1.
