Sriperumbudur: Kolhapur’s Dhruv Mohite returned back to the top of the podium after a gruelling weekend of racing and consolidated his championship standings after Round 2 of the Volkswagen Ameo Cup at the Madras Motorsports Race Track in Sriperumbudur here on Sunday.
After Jeet Jhabakh won Race 2 of the weekend early in the morning, Dhruv grabbed the chance in Race 3, but it was a tough fight to the chequered flag as he survived close competition just as Jeet did.
In the first race of the day, Hyderabad’s Jeet Jhabakh had Anmol Singh of Ghaziabad and Thane’s Saurav Bandyopadhyay on the podium after the race got delayed following an error made by Siddharth Mehdiratta forcing the race to drop one lap.
With Siddharth falling back to the pits, Jeet had a clear track ahead of him and he made a brilliant start and maintained his lead through the race to win maximum points. The battle for second place was tight with Saurav and Anmol trading places on lap 5, Anmol managed to hold onto second position.
The final race of Round 2 in the premium One-Make series saw Saurav on pole based on second best qualifying time achieved by the drivers on Friday and Dhruv next to him in the front row.
Dhruv got off to a brilliant start and grabbed lead immediately as Saurav made a slow start heading into the first corner. Dhruv managed to stay ahead for the duration of the race despite a Safety Car deployment on Lap 1 after an incident between Anuranjan Velmurugan and Arefeen Ahmed.
Behind Dhruv there was an enthralling battle for positions with Jeet gaining multiple positions to finish the race in second position and Anmol taking the third place to complete a hat trick of podium finishes for Round 2.
“We are now half-way through the 2018 Ameo Cup season and the battle for the driver’s title has never been this wide open, we have multiple contenders all of whom are capable enough to go the distance.
Also, surprisingly we have a few rookies’ drivers who are alongside the more experienced in the overall point’s tally, which is a testament to all the work put in by our driver coaches Rayomand Banajee and Karthik Tharani,” said Sirish Vissa, Head of Volkswagen Motorsport India.
“We had a quick turnaround today with multiple races in a short time frame, the cars in terms of performance and reliability have been brilliant today. Even, the MRF tyres have been delivering consistent performances considering the scorching Chennai heat and high track temperatures,” Vissa added.
Volkswagen Ameo Cup 2018 Round 3 will be held at this very track in August, followed by the Round 4 at the Buddh International Circuit, Greater Noida in October.
Results:
Volkswagen Ameo Cup:
Race 2 (7 laps): 1. Jeet Jhabakh (Hyderabad) 13:52.343; 2. Anmol Singh Sahil (Ghaziabad) 13:54.899; 3. Saurav Bandyopadhyay (Thane) 13:58.911; 4. Pratik Sonawane (Pune) 13:59.311; 5. Shubhomoy Ball (Bengaluru) 14:00.085.
Race 3: 1. Dhruv Mohite (Kohlapur) 18:13.727; 2. Jeet Jhabakh (Hyderabad) 18:17.603; 3. Amol Singh Sahil (Ghaziabad) 18:18:068; 4. Saurav Bandyopadhyay (Thane) 18:19.863; 5. Pratik Sonawane (Pune) 18:21.685.
