Photo: Indian F4
The inaugural Indian Formula 4 season concluded at Chennai this weekend, with Cooper Webster becoming champion.
Webster topped both qualifying sessions, setting a 1m58.030s to take race one pole by 1.14 seconds over Akshay Bohra in Q1 and improving to 1m56.898s in Q2 to claim race three pole by 1.598s.
The drivers faced better conditions when it came to the first race a few hours later, and Webster took his seventh win of the campaign by a massive 11.669s.
Bohra was lonely in second place since he had a gap of almost seven seconds to Alex Sawer in third, with Rishon Rajeev a further four seconds behind him.
Shahan Ali Mohsin finished sixth so started on reversed-grid pole for race two the next day, but could only convert his starting position into seventh by the end of the 15-lap race. However that became sixth place when Rishab Jain was penalised 30s for overtaking under yellow flags and was demoted from second to eighth place.
His penalty doubled Rajeev’s winning margin from three to six seconds, with Sawer inheriting runner-up spot ahead of Webster who was crowned champion with two races to spare.
Webster was even more dominant in race three than he was in race one, winning by 12.951s over Bohra. Rajeev won his battle with Sawer to finish third, but had his points gap over Bohra in the fight to be championship runner-up reduced.
Ali Mohsin was sixth, meaning he got another shot at starting from reversed-grid pole in the season finale. This time he made the most of it, but only just, beating Sawer to victory by 0.379s.
The championship’s top three fought over third, and Rajeev prevailed in a photo finish. He finished 0.166s ahead of Bohra, therefore beating him in the standings, and 0.299s ahead of Webster.
Results round-up
Race 1 (17 laps)
1 Cooper Webster 27m28.272s
2 Akshay Bohra +11.669s
3 Alex Sawer +18.381s
4 Rishon Rajeev +22.691s
5 Rishab Jain +28.505s
6 Shahan Ali Mohsin +33.469s
7 Rohaan Madesh +40.722s
8 Jack Taylor +41.217s
9 Nooris Gafoor +47.368s
10 Arjun Chheda +47.803s
Pole: Webster, 1m58.030s
Fastest lap: Webster, 1m38.364s
Race 2 (15 laps)
1 Rajeev 27m36.212s
2 Sawer +6.296s
3 Webster +6.615s
4 Madesh +14.952s
5 Chheda +22.351s
6 Ali Mohsin +22.637s
7 Gafoor +27.061s
8 Jain +35.502s
9 Veer Rajwade +1m06.245s
FL: Rajeev, 1m36.735s
Race 3 (17 laps)
1 Webster 27m34.293s
2 Bohra +12.951s
3 Rajeev +16.126s
4 Sawer +16.892s
5 Madesh +25.176s
6 Ali Mohsin +28.949s
7 Jain +29.482s
8 Chheda +35.544s
9 Taylor +50.493s
10 Gafoor +1m12.109s
P: Webster, 1m56.898s
FL: Webster, 1m36.496s
Race 4 (17 laps)
1 Ali Mohsin 28m03.630s
2 Sawer +0.379s
3 Rajeev +2.017s
4 Bohra +2.183s
5 Webster +2.316s
6 Jain +3.337s
7 Taylor +3.824s
8 Chheda +4.629s
9 Gafoor +10.627s
10 Madesh +11.045s
FL: Webster, 1m37.687s
Championship standings
1 Webster 282.5 2 Rajeev 220 3 Bohra 211 4 Ali Mohsin 202 5 Sawer 186 6 Madesh 90 7 Jain 74 8 Taylor 63 9 Gafoor 57 10 Chheda 37