Weekend round-up (May 11-13): F1, Daruvala podium, NRT win

Lewis Hamilton extended his lead in the drivers standings with a dominant win in the Spanish Grand Prix.

Hamilton led almost the entirety of the race from pole, only ceding the lead during the pitstop cycle, to come away with a 20.593s victory.

Valtteri Bottas crossed the finishing line in second to secure Mercedes’ first one-two finish of the year, while Max Verstappen completed the podium spots.

Sebastian Vettel had shot up to second place at the start of the race, but a decision to pit under the VSC dropped him down to fourth in the classified order.

Meanwhile, Sergio Perez could best manage a ninth place finish for Force India, while Esteban Ocon retired with an oil pressure issue.

Jehan Daruvala scored a podium in the opening round of European F3 series at Pau, France, despite being impeded by a rival driver in qualifying.

Daruvala started the weekend’s final race from fifth on the grid and passed Alex Palou - who stalled on the grid - and Fabio Scherer on the run down to turn 1.

The race eventually had to be red flagged due to tricky wet conditions, but Daruvala had done enough by then to secure the final spot on the podium.

Indian-owned NRT team claimed its second successive victory in the World Supersport championship, courtesy of star rider Jules Cluzel.

Cluzel dispatched polesitter Mahias Lucas on lap 1 to shoot into the lead of the race, only to drop behind the Frenchman on lap 3.

However, when Lucas retired a few laps later, the path was cleared for Cluzel to secure another win for the NRT team.

Arjun Maini failed to score points in the Barcelona round of F2 championship.

Maini qualified 18th for the feature race and rose up to 14th in the early stages, but a few drops of rain caused him to lose the car at turn 14 - leading to immediate retirement.

The sprint race wasn’t much; he started 16th on the grid and finished three places up in 13th.

Armaan Ebrahim and Anindith Reddy (Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia, Thailand)

Armaan Ebrahim and Anindith Reddy scored a double top-five finish in the second round of Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia series in Thailand.

Ebrahim started Race 1 from fifth on the grid and immediately overtook two cars to move into podium position.

He then handed over the car to teammate Reddy, who moved up another position to cross the line second on road.

However, the duo were handed a 30-second penalty for exceeding track limits, robbing them of back-to-back podium finishes.

After taking the penalty into account, the two were classified fifth - a result they replicated in Race 2.

Aditya Patel (Blancpain GT Asia, Thailand)

Aditya Patel scored a decent haul of points in the second round of Blancpain GT Asia series in Thailand, but his results were a shadow of what he managed last season in the championship.

Driving OD Racing’s Audi R8 LMS GT3 alongside teammate Mitch Gilbert, Patel finished seventh in the weekend’s opening race after running as high as fourth.

Race 2 was always going to be difficult with Gilbert having qualified only 11th on the grid, and indeed Patel could finish no higher than 13th after taking over the car for the second stint.

Narain Karthikeyan (Super Formula, Japan)

India’s first Formula 1 driver Narain Karthikeyan was due to take part in the Autopolis round of Super Formula series in Japan, but the race had to be cancelled due to heavy showers.

He had qualified 17th on the grid.

Ruhaan Alva led the charge for India in the 100cc class of EasyKart Italy.

Alva finished ninth in the finals, 5.630s behind the race winner. Mihir Suman Avalakki and Rishon Magehalli were classified 11th and 13th respectively, while Vivan Chiripal finished 17th.

The quarter were all competing for Birtel ART India.