MRF F1600: Shanmugan wins inaugural race of round 1

Ananth Shanmugan has won the first race of the inaugural round of the MRF National Racing Championship F1600 at the Buddh International Circuit.

Starting from pole in race 1, Ananth Shanmugan won after fighting hard aginst Anindith Reddy and Nayan Chaterjee. In the opening race, Reddy took the lead from Shanmugan into the first corner. Chaterjee as well capitalised on Shanmugan’s poor launch and was able to move up to second.

However, Reddy’s lead and Chaterjee’s second place didn’t remain for long as by the end of lap 3, Shanmugan has fought back to move up to second place and then went on to retake the lead.

The 18-year old driver, further extended his advantage and win the race with a margin of 5.608 seconds. This left Reddy to settle for second place while Chaterjee finishing third and additional 1.3 seconds adrift.

Alexa Bora finished the race in fourth place, ahead of Anshul Shah in fifth and Chetan Korada in sixth. Ishaan Dodhiwala climbed up the field to take eighth place after a spin. Angad Matharoo and Vibhav Parker completed the top ten respectively.

The final race for the first round of the season will be held on Sunday at the Buddh International Circuit.