Alessio Picariello takes win in Bahrain

Alessio Picariello won Race 1 of MRF Challenge second round in dominating fashion at the Bahrain International circuit here on Friday. The Belgian driver started strongly from pole and led all through to finish the 10-lap race with a timing of 20:38.123 minutes.

Nikita Troitckii started second but was overtaken initially by impressive Colombian woman driver Tatiana Calderon. However, the Russian driver came back well to reclaim his position and kept searching for space to zoom past Picariello but couldn’t break the debutante’s tough resolve to finish second.

Tatiana also finished on the podium to boost her championship chances. She started fourth from the grid but was benefitted after Indian driver Tarun Reddy’s car didn’t start due to clutch problem. However Calderon did well to stave off Pietro Fittipaldi’s strong challenge. Fittipaldi finished fourth to miss the podium by a thin margin.

Brazilian Fittipaldi now leads the championship standings along with Japanese driver Nobuharu Matsushita. Both have 80 points. Matsushita didn’t participate in the MRF Challenge due to his GP2 engagements here. Calderon is next with 76 points. Troitckii is also nine points behind the joint leaders.

Brazilian Mathaus Leist finished in fifth place with Britain’s Sean Walkinshaw in sixth. Walkinshaw’s country mate Harrison Newey was in seventh followed by Dylan Young, Sam Dejonghe and Max Fewtrell.

Tarun Reddy had to remain content with 11th position after finishing third in the qualifying race on Thursday. He was forced to start late from the pit lane but recovered well to jump his country mates Karthik Tarani and Arjun Narendran. Tarani and Narendran grabbed 12th and 14th place respectively.

Picariello also took the fastest lap honours, clocking 2.03.076 minutes. Russian Nerses Isaakyan and Britain’s woman driver Jessica Hawkins failed to finish the race.