Van Kalmthout impresses
dubai — Dutch driver Rinus van Kalmthout, 17, won Race 2 at the Dubai Autodrome to close in on Championship leader Felipe Drugovich in the MRF Challenge 2017.
Drugovich was running in second place but had an electric problem on the last corner of the last lap and dropped down to ninth place. Van Kalmthout won ahead of Louis Gachot and Julien Falchero. Gachot, son of former Formula 1 driver Bertrand Gachot, is currently a resident of Dubai studying at the American University of Dubai.
Drugovich has earlier won Race 1 ahead of Alex Karkosik and van Kalmthout. Drugovich has a twopoint lead over van Kalmthout.
Qualifying got the engines roaring to start the day and it was a two-way battle between Martono and Drugovich, who set a time of 1:55.867 with three minutes to go on the clock. Martono struck back and set a 1:55.861 to go 0.006 secs faster. He further improved his time to confirm his pole position. Karkosik qualified in third place ahead of van Kalmthout and Julien Falchero.
Martono continued his run of bad starts as he got bogged down allowing the top guys to go past him. Drugovich had the perfect start and led comfortably into the first corner.
Karkosik slotted into second place ahead of van Kalmthout and Falchero. Martono dropped down to sixth place but passed Harri Jones by the end of lap 1. Drugovich was unchallenged as he coasted to his third win of the season. Van Kalmthout set the fastest lap of the race and closed in on Karkosik but was unable to pass the Polish driver and had to settle for third place.