Kush Maini rallies from P22 to P7 after missing pole start: F2
Sakhir (Bahrain) 2 March 2024: Despite securing a pole for the Feature race, Kush Maini, driving for the Invicta team, starting absolutely last in the opening round of the Formula 2 Championship due to a technical infringement and subsequent disqualification of the qualifying time, but did a fantastic job to finish the 32-lap race in P7.
Kush, who is part of the Alpine academy, driving car number 9 went on the Prime tires like the majority of the drivers and ensured that he had a long and consistent stint before changing to the faster Soft tires.
He was the last to pit and fortunately well timed with a Safety car and he exited the Pits in P11. With Fresher tires he made good progress through the field by first passing both the Prema cars driven by Bearman and Antonelli. Was continuously closing the gap till he finished the race in P7.
After the race, Kush Maini said,” I was really happy when we got Provisional Pole on Thursday because that meant that we were able to deliver over one Lap. Was a day with the highest of highs and then the Low when we were told much later that my Qualifying times wouldn’t count because I was disqualified due to a technical reason. Even though it did not change the performance, I had to start both races from the back of the grid. I tried to make as many positions as I could in both races and so as a team we also have enough data to go into the next round. It was also good to get some points in the feature race. Looking forward to racing in Saudi next week.”
Formula 2 returns next week alongside F1 in Saudi. The races can be watched live on F1 TV and in India on Fancode.
