Photo: Indian F4
Aqil Alibhai moved into the Indian Formula 4 points lead in the relocated third round of the season at Chennai.
Kari Motor Speedway was due to host, but on the week of the event it was announced that the championship would instead be returning to its round one venue. Not heading there though was Hugh Barter, the points leader after round two.
Two qualifying sessions took place on Saturday morning, and Jaden Pariat topped the first by 0.376 seconds over Aqil Alibhai. Ruhaan Alva and Veer Sheth were 0.8s behind in third and fourth. Divy Nandan failed to set a representative laptime, leaving him 16th on the race one grid.
Pariat improved by 0.094s in Q2 to secure race three pole, and by a larger 0.544s margin. Behind Alibhai was Abhay Mohan, 1.068s off the pace, and Sheth.
In race one, Pariat converted pole into victory by a comfortable 4.531s, and Alibhai had a massive 18.5s gap to Mohan in third. There was a lot of battling througfh the race for eighth to 10th place, with plenty of overtakes and also a last lap crash that eliminated Shirya Lohia from ninth place.
The next three races took place the next day, and Alva came through for victory in race two. Alibhai finished 0.755s behind him, and moved into the championship lead on second place countback as he and Alva were now level on points.
Sheth was able to match their pace but only finished ninth. As it turned out, the pace was no fluke as they finished second on-the-road in race three then inherited victory once Pariat was handed a 20s penalty. Alva moved up to second, having met the chequered flag just 0.165s after Sheth, and Mohan was third.
First place in the standings now belonged to Alva, but Alibhai snatched top spot back with a crushing display in race four. His fastest lap was 1.3s faster than anyone else could manage and he took his second victory of the season by a huge 19.238s in what was just a 15-lap race.
Nandan was runner-up, leading home Alva and Pariat after the trio were closely matched on pace.
Results round-up
Race 1 (16 laps)
1 Jaden Pariat 26m57.528s
2 Aqil Alibahi +4.531s
3 Abhay Mohan +23.018s
4 Isaac Demellweek +24.824s
5 Ruhaan Alva +26.443s
6 Aiva Anagostiadis +37.844s
7 Divy Nandan +43.030s
8 Akhil Agarwal +1m02.889s
9 Esmee Kosterman +1m06.673s
Ret Shirya Lohia
Pole: Pariat, 1m40.083s
Fastest lap: Pariat, 1m40.459s
Race 2 (15 laps)
1 Alva 28m16.720s
2 Alibhai +0.755s
3 Pariat +1.977s
4 Demellweek +3.634s
5 Anagostiadis +6.144s
6 Nandan +7.961s
7 Mohan +11.170s
8 Agarwal +14.080s
9 Veer Sheth +14.971s
10 Kosterman +16.073s
FL: Alva, 1m40.521s
Race 3 (15 laps)
1 Sheth 27m34.182s
2 Alva +0.165s
3 Mohan +2.459s
4 Alibhai +4.275s
5 Nandan +8.735s
6 Demellweek +9.128s
7 Dillon Zachariah +11.416s
8 Pariat +12.725s
9 Agarwal +17.887s
10 Tristan Rajakoski +18.473s
P: Pariat, 1m39.989s
FL: Pariat, 1m41.453s
Race 4 (15 laps)
1 Alibahi 27m31.329s
2 Nandan +19.238s
3 Alva +19.760s
4 Pariat +20.337s
5 Demellweek +24.652s
6 Zachariah +28.407s
7 Giancarlo Artho +29.113s
8 Agarwal +38.190s
9 Raiden Samervel +38.513s
10 Lohia +54.228s
FL: Alibhai, 1m39.684s
Championship standings
1 Alibhai 144 2 Alva 138 3 Pariat 120 4 Hugh Barter 95 5 Demellweek 84 6 Mohan 71 7 Sheth 67 8 Nandan 61 9 Anagnostiadis 29 10 Agarwal 14