Arjun Maini narrowly misses a podium in Sepang
The JK Tyre supported driver finished 4th and 7th in Races 1 and 2 respectively
Sepang, 2nd October, 2016: It was a good weekend for TVS supported driver Arjun Maini as he secured another impressive double top 8 finish at Sepang, Malaysia, finishing 4th and 7th in Races 1 and 2 at the sweltering track for Jenzer Motorsport. Maini now has 50 championship points after 6 races and has made it to the top 10 in the championship standings in spite of missing the first 4 races.
After qualifying 7th for Race 1 but moving up two places to 5th due to penalties, Maini made the most of his good fortune and slotted into third in the opening lap. But Championship leader Charles Leclerc overtook him for the last podium spot and Maini pursued him right till the end of the race. Despite missing out on a podium finishing 4th, the young Indian secured the second fastest lap of the race at 1:51.988. He started Race 2 also in 5th place but lost 4 positions in the first few opening laps. He had good pace as evidenced in earlier sessions and was able to make up spots to get to 7th place. He was held up for several laps by a slower Steijn Schothorst (Campos Racing) running ahead of him. He finished in 7thplace with a best lap of 1:52.085. Once again Arjun showed that he had very good race pace.
With one race to go for the season in Abu Dhabi, Arjun was positive about the potential to secure another podium in 2016.“We’ve constantly been finishing in the top 10 over the past couple of races which indicates that we have enough pace to compete in the front. An excellent qualifying session can propel me to a podium finish in Abu Dhabi hopefully. The 4th place was good but maybe one more lap and I could have overtaken Charles (Leclerc).”
