GP3 driver Ryan Cullen won his first ever race in the MRF Challenge as he overtook pole sitter Raj Bharath in Race 1 at the Bahrain International Circuit here Friday.
Debutant Struan Moore drove brilliantly to hold off Toby Sowery to win Race 2 which saw the lead change six times in the 12-lap race. Cullen got his second podium of the day when he finished third place in Race 2.
In Race 1, Bharath had a great start to comfortably lead into the first corner. Cullen had a slow start and lost out to Championship leader Toby Sowery and then Kyle Mitchell.
On lap 2, Cullen passed Sowery before making a move on Mitchell to move into second place. Bharath pulled away at the front, but his lead was cancelled out when the safety car came out on lap 3 due to Tarun Reddy retiring on track with a drive shaft failure.
After the restart, Cullen started reeling Bharath in and made a brilliant move into the long left hander after the back straight to take the lead and went on to take his first win in the series ahead of Bharath and Mitchell.
In Race 2, Dylan Young led from the start ahead of Sowery with Bharath having a great start to move into third place. Sowery passed Young for the lead on lap 3 with Bharath getting past on the following lap.
Bharath closed in on Sowery and tried to get past the British driver on the long left hander, but both ran a little wide and lost time. Moore passed Young for third place and took advantage of the top two drivers tripping each other to take the lead on lap 7.
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Bharath lost further ground as Cullen passed him into the first corner on lap 9. Sowery tried to put pressure on Moore but the youngster did a brilliant job to hold on for his first victory in the series. Cullen finished third and Bharath fourth.
The results (provisional):
Race 1: Ryan Cullen (GBR); 2. Raj Bharath (IND); 3, Kyle Mitchell (RSA). Race 2: 1. Struan Moore (GBR); 2. Toby Sowery (GBR); 3. Ryan Cullen (GBR).