MRF Challenge Qatar: Sowery and Reddy victorious in first two races

The 2014-15 season of the MRF Challenge Formula 2000 Championship got underway yesterday at Qatar’s Losail International Circuit with Britain's Toby Sowery and Chennai born Tarun Reddy winning races one and two respectively around the 5.3km circuit.

Both the races were held under the floodlights with British F3 Cup championship leader winning the first race from pole position, having dominated the field in practice. Marussia’s GP3 driver Ryan Cullen was Sowery’s ‘closest’ challenger, finishing 18 seconds behind to take P2 in the race. South Africa’s Kyle Mitchell rounded off the podium while Mathias Lauda, son of legendary three-time F1 world champion Niki, finished just outside of the rostrum in fourth place.

In the second race, positions one to six were swapped to form a reverse grid while the remainder of the field was decided in the order they finished in race 1.

REDDY VICTORIOUS
Tarun Reddy, who clinched the MRF Formula Ford 1600 title last month at India’s Buddh International Circuit, emerged victorious in the second MRF Challenge race in his #2 tri-coloured Formula 2000 car.

The other three Indian drivers on the grid, Raj Bharath, Vikash Anand, and Lee Kashav, finished 7th, 9th and 14th respectively.

Russia’s Nikita Mazepin finished 1.6 seconds down the road to take second place. Toby Sewery and Mathias went side-by-side when the chequered flag was waved on lap 15 with the British driver eventually denying Mathias the final spot on the podium.

The first round of the MRF Challenge continues today with two more races scheduled for the day.

The second round of the Indian one-make series takes place at the FIA Grade 1 Bahrain International Circuit, with the event serving as a support race to the penultimate round of World Endurance Championship on 14-15 November.

The winner of the MRF Challenge, which will conclude at Chennai’s Madras Motor Race Track on 24-25 January, will take home INR 65,00,000 in cash.