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Difficult weekend for Rabindra and Vaidyanathan

The sixth round of the British F4 championship at Snetterton proved to be a difficult outing for the Indians Akhil Rabindra and Ameya Vaidyanathan.

Akhil Rabindra, Douglas Motorsport

Akhil Rabindra, Douglas Motorsport

Douglas Motorsports

Akhil Rabindra, Douglas Motorsport
Ameya Vaidyanathan, Hillspeed
Ameya Vaidyanathan, Hillspeed
Akhil Rabindra, Douglas Motorsport
Akhil Rabindra, Douglas Motorsport
Akhil Rabindra, Douglas Motorsport
Harrison Newey, HHC Motorsport
Akhil Rabindra, Douglas Motorsport
Ameya Vaidyanathan, Hillspeed
Akhil Rabindra, Douglas Motorsport
Akhil Rabindra, Douglas Motorsport
Akhil Rabindra, Douglas Motorsport

Rabindra (Douglas Motorsport) started the weekend sitting 11th in the drivers' championship while Vaidyanathan (Hillspeed) was 17th.

The practice started well for Rabindra who managed a seventh, 16th, seventh and fifth in the four sessions respectively while Vaidyanathan, after having chosen to compete in F4 instead of MSA Formula this weekend finished eighth, third, sixth and seventh respectively.

Both the Indians showed good pace in practice which was led by Will Palmer (HHC Motorsport) in the first, second and fourth session while Omar Ismail (Chris Dittmann Racing) topped the third session.

Qualifying round-up

Palmer continued his good run with a pole lap of 1m40.309s with Ismail behind him and Formula 1 ace designer Adrian Newey's son Harri Newey (HHC Motorsport) third.

Vaidyanathan finished seventh and was 1.396s away from Palmer; the Indian was running in the top five until late improvements from his competitors.

Rabindra qualified inside the top 10 at ninth after running fourth in the initial stages. The Douglas Motorsport driver stated that his fast lap was hindered by traffic.

Pole for Rabindra; Vaidyanathan struggles

The first race saw Palmer winning from Newey and Tom Jackson (Chris Dittmann Racing). Rabindra finished eighth which meant, he was to start on pole for the second race in a reverse grid formation.

The Indian dropped to 11th at the start and made up two places midway in the race and eventually finished eighth after Jack Bartholomew (Lanan Racing) dropped down.

Vaidyanathan, on the other hand, had a terrible start which saw him drop to 18th and it was struggle from there on to finish 16th in the end.

Double retirement

Rabindra, starting on pole, would have hoped for his first podium in the championship but that wasn't to be.

Heading into the first corner, Rabindra was hit by Rodrigo Fonseca (Lanan Racing) who was himself hit by Al Faisal Al Zubair (Hillspeed) which ended the Indian's race before even it went to the second corner.

It was not only a retirement for Rabindra but Vaidyanathan too retired from the race after he made contact with Fernando Urrutia (Douglas Motorsport) on the penultimate lap.

The Hillspeed driver was running in the top 10 after starting 16th; he was penalised for the incident and was handed a five-place grid penalty for the third race.

Jackson took victory from Newey and Zubair after the original second-place finisher Chris Mealin (Lanan Racing) was excluded from the race.

Points for Vaidyanathan; pace issues for Rabindra

Vaidyanthan scored a much needed point after two troubled races in the third race. He started 11th and had a race long fight with teammate Zubair for 10th which he took towards the end of the race.

He gained another position to finish ninth after teammate Hernan Fallas dropped to the back of the field on the last lap.

Rabindra, on the other hand, started from 13th and finished 14th in a difficult race. His car was fixed after race two's shunt but he told Motorsport.com that he "lacked pace" and that the car "didn't feel good".

Palmer took a storming victory from Jackson and Newey to lead the championship with 418 points.

As a result of a troubled weekend, Rabindra dropped to 14th with 155 points in the championship while Vaidyanathan sits 17th with 128 points.

The championship now moves to Donington Park for the seventh round in the middle of September (11th-13th).

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Edition

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