Results

How Indians performed over the weekend (June 28-30)

India’s next two F1 hotshots Jehan Daruvala and Arjun Maini were joined by Force India and Mahindra Racing over the last three days. We review their performance in our weekend wrap-up.

Best finish: second

Mahindra Racing signed off the 2016-17 Formula E season - their best till date - with a podium finish in the season finale at Montreal.

The first race of the double header ended in disappointment after a tardy stop from Mahindra and a brief contact with the wall left Felix Rosenqvist trailing home in ninth place. Nick Heidfeld retired with suspension damage after a collision with Loic Duval.

However, the stars aligned in the second race of the weekend; Rosenqvist qualified on pole and held the lead until the second half of the race, where he was passed by Teechetah’s Jean-Eric Vergne. Heidfeld finished not too far behind in fifth, helping Mahindra secure third place in the championship - just behind Renault eDams and Audi Abt.

Best finish: fourth

Although Jehan Daruvala couldn’t finish on the podium in the most recent F3 Europe round at Spa, he performed consistently well throughout the weekend.

In the opening race, Daruvala was on the move as soon as the initial safety car retreated, dispatching Joey Mawson and Ralf Aron in quick succession to finish fourth.

The Force India protege was again involved in a scrap in Race 2; while he lost places to Carlin teammate Ferdinand Habsburg and Nikita Mazepin, he was able to pass Calum Illot and Ralf Aron to be classified fifth at the flag.

Another top five finish beckoned in Race 3 allowing the 18-year-old to hold fifth place in the standings.

Result: Eighth and ninth

Although Force India got beaten at a high downforce track by both McLaren and Toro Rosso, the Silverstone-based squad would be fairly pleased to score a double points result when their closest rival Williams failed to finish inside the top 10.

Both Perez and Ocon made blistering starts from 13th and 11th on the grid, catapulting themselves to eighth and tenth respectively. There was a minor contact between the two on the opening lap, but they were able to continue without any significant damage to their cars.

In the end, Perez crossed the flag in eighth place with Ocon getting ahead of McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne to take ninth.

With this result, Force India crossed the 100 points mark and solidified fourth place in the constructors standings.

Best finish: Ninth

Arjun Maini returned empty handed from the Hungaroring GP3 round after a spate of car issues severely compromised his weekend.

The first technical gremlin - a throttle issue - hit him during his final run in qualifying, leaving him 13th on the grid for the feature race. His starting position would not matter in the end as he could only go as far as the first corner before retiring on technical grounds.

With the grid for the sprint race decided on the basis of the race results of Saturday’s feature event, the Jenzer driver was forced to start the sprint race from the back of the pack.

Despite the setback, the 19-year-old fought till the very end, staging a superb recovery drive to finish ninth at the chequered flag and on the cusp of points. While he did benefit from others’ retirement, there is no denying that the race was a great display of his underlying pace.

Best finish: 14th

Ameya Vaidyanathan made his Formula 3 debut last weekend with Carlin and was understandably off the pace due to lack of experience of the machinery. The high level of competition in the series also played its part.

Vaidyanathan qualified towards the rear of the grid, but gained a few places from his starting position each time. He was classified 16th, 14th and 15th respectively in the three races.

More importantly he gained valuable track time in the Formula 3 car, which should help him move to the sharper end of the pack in the second half of the season.