MRF F1600: Sandeep Kumar takes the lead

The very first lap of this weekend’s race witnessed a collision, which forced the points leader Anindith Reddy to withdraw early.

In the round five of the MRF F1600 championship, Sandeep Kumar started on the pole position, and initially, faced intense rivalry from Chetan Korada and Anindith Reddy.

The race took an interesting turn when Korada slammed into Reddy - leaving the latter with a broken rear wing. This incident costed both the racers the entire race, as consequently - Keith Desouza moved up to the second spot, and Arya Singh grabbed the third. It also compensated for Sandeep’s rather slow start, assuring that he stayed in the lead.

Post the action packed first lap - the battle, pretty much got narrowed down between the top three racers. Goa based Keith inched very close to Kumar on multiple occasions, but ultimately fell 0.476 seconds behind the former as the race ended. Similarly, Arya Singh finished 0.640 seconds behind Desouza. Ishaan Dodhiwala managed to grab the fourth spot, while Korada came in at number five.

Unfortunately, Reddy’s broken wing didn't allow him to finish the race, and he had to retire after the fourth lap. However, it's still good news for Reddy, as the Hyderabad based racer sealed the title which will earn him ticket to the Mazda Road to Indy shootout in the United States later in 2017. Despite his early withdrawal, Anindith was well placed with a lead of 32 points over today’s winner Sandeep, with two more races to be run on September 17, and a maximum of 25 points at stake.