Photo: Indian F4
Cooper Webster was the top scorer at Chennai in round two of the inaugural Indian Formula 4 season.
The championship began at the same track on November 4/5, after the opening round was relocated at late notice, and since then there have been further calendar changes.
Chennai was set to host rounds two and three back-to-back on November 30/December 1 and December 2/3, but on November 22 it was announced that round two would take place on December 1/2 and round three would be postponed to December 5/6.
Rounds four and five were due to follow a similar format, running back-to-back on December 9 and 10 on Chennai Formula Racing Circuit, a new street track by the Bay of Bengal. But now that weekend will feature less racing and run as one round over three days, but still include a night race, while round five has been moved to the permanent Chennai track and will run on December 16/17.
So round two began this weekend with practice, qualifying and two races on Friday. Championship leader Webster took race one pole by just 0.094 seconds in Q1, setting a 1m39.029s to deny Rishon Rajeev top spot.
Akshay Bohra was 0.464s behind in third, and the debuting Dion Gowda was 0.656s off the pace in fourth.
The pace was lowered in Q2, and Bohra earned race three pole with a 1m38.277s lap. He was fastest by 0.448s over Gowda, and Webster was a further 0.095s slower in third. Rajeev and Alex Sawer completed the top five.
Webster converted his pole into victory, but only just as he held off Rajeev by 0.279s to win. His attempts to pull away from a driver he was very closely matched with on pace (as Rajeev’s fastest lap was only 0.067s faster than his own) was not helped by a safety car interruption.
Bohra finished 1.298s behind in third, and Gowda was a lonely fourth but did set the fastest lap in clean air.
The finishing order of the top six in race one was reversed to form the race two grid, putting Shahan Ali Mohsin – who had been investigated after race one for overtaking behind the safety car – on pole. He made the most of it to win, while Webster rose to second place and finished just 0.349s behind him.
Sawer had the pace to challenge the top two and finished 1.238s behind in third.
Gowda passed Bohra to win race three, which was red flagged after four laps and not restarted due to weather conditions. Webster finished third to hold onto the championship lead, and Rajeev set the fastest lap in fourth.
Results
Race 1 (15 laps)
1 Cooper Webster 27m30.732s
2 Rishon Rajeev +0.279s
3 Akshay Bohra +1.298s
4 Dion Gowda +4.737s
5 Alex Sawer +10.100s
6 Shahan Ali Mohsin +14.969s
7 Nooris Gafoor +15.754s
8 Rohaan Madesh +18.972s
9 Arjun Chheda +21.755s
Ret Jack Taylor
Pole: Webster, 1m39.029s
Fastest lap: Gowda, 1m38.254s
Race 2 (14 laps)
1 Ali Mohsin 28m16.235s
2 Webster +0.349s
3 Sawer +1.238s
4 Bohra +1.827s
5 Rajeev +3.124s
6 Taylor +9.066s
7 Madesh +10.155s
8 Gafoor +52.356s
Ret Gowda
DNS Chheda
FL: Rajeev, 1m38.030s
Race 3 (4 laps)
1 Gowda 10m02.828s
2 Bohra +0.781s
3 Webster +1.810s
4 Rajeev +2.291s
5 Madesh +3.650s
6 Ali Mohsin +4.542s
7 Gafoor +6.199s
8 Chheda +8.087s
9 Taylor +9.218s
DNS Sawer
P: Bohra, 1m38.277s
FL: Rajeev, 2m01.664s
Championship standings
1 Webster 109.5 2 Bohra 90 3 Ali Mohsin 82 4 Rajeev 79 5 Sawer 56 6 Madesh 33 7 Gowda 25.5 8 Rishab Jain 24 9 Gafoor 23 10 Taylor 19