Buriram F4: Gowda ends weekend with another podium
Akash Gowda notched up his second podium of the Formula 4 South East Asia weekend at Buriram, on the final day in the 2016/17 season's penultimate round.
Podium: race winner Presley Martono, second place Faine Kahia, third place Akash Gowda
Formula 4 SEA
The Indian started the Buriram weekend finishing fifth and seventh in the first two races on Friday, but encountered issues in the Saturday races, before ending the day on the podium in Race 5.
For the sixth race on Sunday, the Bangalore-born driver had a difficult start to drop below the top five from the second row of the grid.
With Isyraf Danish and early leader Eric Louis forced to retire due to mechanical issues, Gowda was back in the race, firmly in the fight for the final place on the podium.
Midway into the race, Gowda was involved in a three-way battle chasing Danial Frost for third, while defending his position from Worawong Komarakul.
Eventually, Gowda made the decisive move to take third and pull away from Frost, as Presley Martono won the race from Faine Kahia up ahead.
Fight in final race
The organisers decided to host the replacement race from the Clark round, which was postponed due to poor weather, this weekend at Buriram.
In the race, Gowda made a steady start from the front row, with polesitter Khalid Al-Wahaibi leading the way comfortably ahead.
While the Omani driver pulled up a gap, Gowda was under pressure from Danish and Martono. Both made a quick work of Gowda to slot themselves into the two podium positions.
But with Al-Wahaibi losing momentum, Gowda got back to third as the safety car was brought out for an incident.
Upon the re-start, the Indian driver was quickly overtaken by Frost, with the two then engaged in a battle until the chequered flag.
But Gowda was unable to tackle Frost as the duo were separated by a mere 0.565s in the end. Up ahead, Martono fended off well to take victory from Danish.
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