The Maini Brothers' Stellar European Run

Jehan Daruvala and Kush Maini (F2)

Leading up to June, Formula 2 has already seen six rounds of action since the start of the season in Bahrain. Unfortunately, the 5th round had to be called off due to Imola's climatic conditions. Before we head to Barcelona, Kush Maini sits 4th in the championship with 49 points, whereas his fellow countryman Jehan Daruvala is at 9th with 40 points. It’s important to mention that Kush has had one of the best starts to a Formula 2 season as a rookie. Before Monaco, Kush had scored points in seven out of the eight races, second only to Lando Norris, who, in his rookie season, scored in all eight races. 

Round 7, Barcelona (2-4 June)

The weekend kicked off with Free Practice, where Jehan finished the session in P3 while Kush was back in P21. 

Qualifying was a bit disappointing for both of them. MP Motorsport decided to run their cars in the gap after everyone had done their initial runs, they finished their runs early and were sitting in the pitlane during the final few minutes when everyone else was setting faster lap times, same thing happened with Kush Maini as well. The pair finished 14 and 15th in Quali with Maini ahead of Daruvala.

Starting outside the top 10 for the races, there wasn’t much they could’ve done. Both Kush and Jehan had pretty uneventful races, having their strategy compromised because of the safety car in the sprint race.

Final results: 

Arjun Maini (ADAC GT Masters, DTM)

Arjun Maini seems to be having a pretty good time in Europe driving the Mercedes AMG of Haupt Racing Team. In June alone, Arjun Maini took part in 1000 km of Paul Ricard, and Round 1 of ADAC GT Masters, he’ll also be participating in Round 2 of DTM at Zandvoort on 23-25th June. 

The 1000km of Paul Ricard was Round 3 of GT World Championship Europe. Arjun Maini drove the #79 HRT Mercedes-AMG with Hubert Haupt and Sebastien Baud in the Bronze Cup. The team led much of the race before falling behind the McLaren of Garage 59. Garage 59 started from pole before slipping back during the middle phase of the race but was back in front by the final hour. Victory looked to be assured, only for a right-rear hub failure to eliminate the #188 McLaren in a cruel fashion. This put the #79 HRT Mercedes-AMG back in command. HRT leads the class standings heading to the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, adding a win to the P3 it secured at Monza.

The Round 1 of ADAC GT Masters was held at Hockenheim from 9-11th June. In the first race Arjun Maini and his teammate Petru Umbrarescu finished P6, having started 9th in their #3 HRT Mercedes AMG GT3. In the second race however, Arjun Maini smashed the qualifying record and produced the perfect lap at the Hockenheimring, recording a time of 1:36.961 minutes to secure his first pole position.

Maini led the race for the most part; it was only after the driver change that his teammate got overtaken by the #91 Porsche of Team Joos By RACEmotion. The pair finished P2 in the second race. This puts them P4 in the drivers championship with 33 points, just 5 points away from the leaders. ADAC GT Masters will head to Norisring for round 2 from 7-9 July.