Maini ends "tough" Oulton Park weekend with strong podium

Lanan Racing's Kush Maini ended a difficult weekend at Oulton Park on a high, with a podium finish in the final race of the weekend enough to lift him to fourth overall in the championship.

The 17-year-old Indian driver was the pace setter at the Donington Park Media Day, but things didn't quite come together in testing and qualifying in Cheshire, but nevertheless showed strong progress in the races, finishing ninth, fifth and finally third.

"It was a really tough weekend," he admitted after race three. "We had some issues on Thursday and Friday which weren’t really our fault, it was just one of those things which happens. We sorted it out for qualifying but I made a driver error and went off and cracked the front wing on the second lap, so I guess we just have to learn from these things and we've done a good salvage job for the championship. There's still a long, long way to go and we're not so far behind, so a couple of strong weekends and we'll be back in for the fight. That's still our one and only goal."

Monday's action was blighted by wet weather throughout the day, conditions which Maini doesn't have much experience of, making his podium in race three all the more impressive: "We've been really lucky with pre-season testing and we really only drove in the dry, so I haven't really had a lot of experience in the wet. It was definitely tough and got really hard towards the end of race three with a lot of water building up on the track, but I'm happy that we got on the podium and salvaged the championship."

He now aims for an even stronger showing at Rockingham in a month's time: "We've done a day of testing at Rockingham and we were really fast, so I'm looking forward to it. It's a physical track and fitness is going to be the key there to keep it going through the race, so it's going to be fun and I can't wait for it."

BRDC British F3 Championship, Oulton Park, race one result:

1. Linus Lundqvist, Double R Racing, 11 laps
2. Nicolai Kjaergaard, Carlin, +0.826s
3. Billy Monger, Carlin, +4.093s
4. Tom Gamble, Fortec Motorsports, +4.898s
5. Krish Mahadik, Double R Racing, +9.055s
6. Sun Yue Yang, Carlin, +10.004s
7. Jordan Cane, Douglas Motorsport, +10.810s
8. Jamie Chadwick, Douglas Motorsport, +12.486s
9. Kush Maini, Lanan Racing, +13.570s
10. Sasakorn Chaimongkol, Hillspeed, +16.591s
11. Manuel Maldonado, Fortec Motorsports, +16.875s
12. Chia Woong Hoong, Chris Dittmann Racing, +19.000s
13. Pavan Ravishankar, Double R Racing, +24.551s
14. Arvin Esmaeili, Douglas Motorsport, +33.433
15. Ben Hurst, Hillspeed, +37.088s
16. Tristan Charpentier, Fortec Motorsports, +46.625s
DNF. Clement Novalak, Carlin, 0 laps completed

BRDC British F3 Championship, Oulton Park race two result:

1. Manuel Maldonado, Fortec Motorsports, 7 laps
2. Tristan Charpentier, Fortec Motorsports, +0.393s
3. Jamie Chadwick, Douglas Motorsport, +0.750s
4. Nicolai Kjaergaard, Carlin, +2.469s
5. Kush Maini, Lanan Racing, +2.849s
6. Tom Gamble, Fortec Motorsports, +3.283s
7. Clement Novalak, Carlin, +3.557s
8. Linus Lundqvist, Double R Racing, +4.016s
9. Billy Monger, Carlin, +5.115s
10. Arvin Esmaeili, Douglas Motorsport, +11.779s
11. Sasakorn Chaimongkol, Hillspeed, +13.026s
12. Ben Hurst, Hillspeed, +1 lap
13. Sun Yue Yang, Carlin, +1 lap
14. Pavan Ravishankar, Double R Racing, +1 lap
DNF. Krish Mahadik, Double R Racing
DNF. Chia Wing Hoong, Chris Dittmann Racing
DNF. Jordan Cane, Douglas Motorsport

BRDC British F3 Championship, race three result, Oulton Park

1. Nicolai Kjaergaard, Carlin, 12 laps
2. Tom Gamble, Fortec Motorsports, +0.814s
3. Kush Maini, Lanan Racing, +17.187s
4. Clement Novalak, Carlin, +18.312s
5. Linus Lundqvist, Double R Racing, +24.252s
6. Tristan Charpentier, Fortec Motorsports, +42.258s
7. Jamie Chadwick, Douglas Motorsport, +47.866s
8. Billy Monger, Carlin, +49.151s
9. Krish Mahadik, Double R Racing, +53.417s
10. Manuel Maldonado, Fortec Motorsports, +1m15.383s
11. Sasakorn Chaimongkol, Hillspeed, +1m22.034s
12. Pavan Ravishankar, Double R Racing, +1m23.153s
13. Arvin Esmaeili, Douglas Motorsport, +1 lap
14. Ben Hurst, Hillspeed, +1 lap
DNF. Sun Yue Yang, Carlin, +3 laps
DNF. Chia Wing Hoong, Chris Dittmann Racing, 7 laps completed