Coimbatore MRF F1600: Datta dominates season opener
Ashwin Datta scored a dominant win as the MRF F1600 season began in earnest at Coimbatore’s Kari Motor Speedway on Saturday.
Ashwin Datta
Anand Philar
After claiming pole position by less than tenth off a second in the morning, Datta was untouchable in the first of the three MRF F1600 races of the weekend as he pulled a gap from the very beginning of the 15-lap encounter.
He eventually took victory by over seven-and-a-half seconds and also set the fastest lap of the race.
Season racer Raghul Rangasamy climbed his way up from sixth on the grid to take the runner-up spot, while Nirmal Uma Shankar grabbed the final podium position.
Sandeep Kumar started from the front row of the grid but dropped early on to finish fourth, just a second adrift of Uma Shankar.
Reigning Volkswagen Ameo Cup Champion Karminder Singh initiated a heroic drive from back of the pack to finish a promising fifth, although some 28 seconds behind race winner Datta.
Karting graduate Yash Aradhya equally impressed on his MRF F1600 debut, finishing on the tail of Karminder in sixth.
Arya Singh, Nabil Hussain and Chetan Korada completed the list of classified finishers in seventh, eighth and ninth respectively.
Nayan Chatterjee, 2015 runner-up Goutham Parekh and Keith Desouza were the three retirees from the race.
Parekh has been running in second position until he was forced to pull over on lap 11.
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