Double delight for Felipe Drugovich in MRF Challenge season opener

SAKHIR (BAHRAIN): Brazilian racer Felipe Drugovich was in red-hot form as he got his MRF Challenge 2017 campaign off to a perfect start by winning both races in the season opener at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir.

The 17-year-old pulled off a last lap manoeuvre on Manuel Maldonado, cousin of former F1 racer Pastor Maldonado, to win the second race on Friday. Presley Martono also passed Maldonado in a thrilling run to to beat the Venezuelan by one-hundredths of a second to take second. In the first race, Drugovich benefited from race leader Rinus van Kalmthout’s retirement to win ahead of Martono and Dylan Young.

Earlier in the day, van Kalmthout was dominant in qualifying to put his car on pole by almost half-a-second, clocking two minutes and 0.754 seconds. Drugovich qualified second with Alex Karkosik in third.

Van Kalmthout had the perfect start from pole to lead into the first corner. Drugovich followed him with Young jumping from seventh to third. Drugovich managed to stay with van Kalmthout for the first few laps before the Dutchman started pulling away. Meanwhile, Martono passed Young to third and started gaining on Drugovich.

It was heartbreak for van Kalmthout as he retired from the lead with two laps to go due to a mechanical issue. Martono closed up right behind Drugovich and the two were side-by-side as they headed down the main straight. Martono tried to get past but Drugovich held on to win the first race with Young third.

In the reverse grid-based Race 2, Maldonado jumped Julian Falchero to lead into the first corner. Drugovich had a strong start from sixth to get into third behind Karkosik, who however, had to retire with a mechanical problem. On the last lap, Drugovich outbraked Maldonado to take the lead with Martono close behind. Coming out of the last corner and heading into the pit straight, Martono managed to get his nose ahead to beat Maldonado by 0.010 seconds. It was heartbreak for Maldonado, who slipped from first to third on the last lap.