Lucca Allen started from pole in the twenty first race. The Irishman got away well with Shihab and Elias hot on his heels. The trio raced through the first section with the Finn challenging for first, opening the door for Lucca to build a lead as Alister Yoong jumped past Yash and Muizz, approaching the second sector.
Shihab and Elias were setting strong lap times just ahead of Alister who was trying to find his way back onto the podium after not doing quite as well as he had hoped in qualifying.
But as we proved last weekend at the Madras Motor Race Track, Qualifying is of the upmost importance! Lucca was maintaining his lead at the front of the pack, advantaged by the fighting further down the order and the nature of the track itself.
Then everything changed. A collision between car seventeen and nine at turn three beached Sneha on the exit, forcing the safety car to come out while she was recovered.
After bunching back up the order for several laps, we all waited in anticipation of the restart, conscious that Alister and Shihab had the pace to make something interesting happen. Lucca took control of the pack as the safety car came in and floored it coming out of turn ten.
The Irishman dashed past the line with everyone on his heels, keeping them behind him through the first sector. But at turn five disaster struck. Lucca seemed to lose power and Shihab jumped past with Elias, Alister and the rest of the procession following suit.
That made it Shihab, Elias and Alister at the flag! Lucca managed to finish the race when his car returned at the end of the lap.
A good start to the double header at the Madras Motor Race Track making a very interesting grid in the next race!