Rising Indian racer Arjun Maini managed a top 10 finish at Round 4 of the FIA European Formula 3 series here.
The three-race round event, which took place at the historic Monza circuit over the weekend, saw the 17-year-old from Bangalore add another point to his championship by finishing 10th in race one. He is now 13th in the championship out of highly competitive grid of 35 drivers from 17 countries.
Maini had a good qualifying session on Friday managing to put the car 13th overall, considering the lap was set without the help of a slipstream, which in a track like Monza can give you over 12 km/h down the straight, the result was quite impressive.
The qualifying set him up nicely for Race 1 and after a difficult start where he was boxed in on the inside line by the cars in front, Maini managed to claw back six positions to eventually finish 10th.
The second and third races however were cut short due to several accidents and were run for a large part behind the safety car. Race 2 in particular witnessed two big flips and several other accidents, which meant the race was red flagged before the 75 percent mark. Maini was fortunate to avoid any damage to his car after he forced to take evasive action after Tatiana Calderon hit the wall and was pushed back into his path. This in turn dropped the India down to dead last of the runners. The youngster eventually finished 20th.
The final race of the weekend was a bit of an anticlimax, as further incidents saw the race red flagged after just three laps.
When asked about his weekend, Maini said, "I am happy to have been one of the few drivers to bring the car home without any significant damage. That being said I am a little disappointed that Race 3 was called off so early, in truth the weekend hasn't been the best for me and I was looking forward to working on my race craft, I hope we don't have further races such as these in the future. These first few races have been an eyeopener for me and I now look forward to spending some time back home before the second part of the championship."
The championship now moves to the iconic Spa Francorchamps circuit in Belgium in three week's time.
