Local lad Gyan stays in front of MRF Formula 1600 pack

CHENNAI: Two 17-year-olds, Ishaan Madesh from Bengaluru, and Chennai’s Gyan S recorded lights-to-flag victories in the MRF Formula 2000 and Formula 1600 categories, respectively, to launch their campaign on a bright note in the third round of the MRF Indian National Racing Challenge 4W – 2026 at the Madras International Circuit, here on Saturday.

Gyan did well to stay in front of the pack while keeping a sharp eye on points leader Bhuvan Bonu from Visakhapatnam who finished second with Bengaluru’s Tanmay Kothari completing the podium.

Earlier, Viswas Vijayaraj from Nellore notched his seventh consecutive win across three rounds in the Formula LGB 1300 class. The eight-lap race saw pole-sitter Viswas in the lead until he yielded ground to his DTS Racing team-mate Vinithkumar in the second half of the race. In the penultimate lap, Viswas passed Vinithkumar under late braking into “Anand’s Corner” to regain the lead which he kept to the finish line. Finishing third behind Vinithkumar was another DTS Racing driver, veteran Diljith TS.

The results (Provisional, all 8 laps unless mentioned):

MRF F2000 (Race-1): Ishaan Madesh (Bengaluru) (12 mins, 47.336 secs); Saishiva Sankaran (Pune) (12:50.666); Krishay Gutte (Mumbai) (12:53.825)

MRF F1600 (Race-1): Gyan Satish (Chennai) (13:58.546); Bhuvan Bonu (Visakhapatnam) (13:59.069); Tanmay Kothari (Bengaluru) (14:05.371)

Formula LGB 1300 (Race-1, Open): Viswas Vijayaraj (Nellore, DTS Racing) (15:05.241); Vinithkumar (Tirupur, DTS Racing) (15:05.529); Dilijith TS (Thrissur, DTS Racing) (15:13.891)

Super Stock (Race-1): Diljith TS (Thrissur, DTS Racing) (16:42.380); Lal Kattikulam Bharathan (Thrissur, DTS Racing) (16:46.929); Deepa S John (Thiruvananthapuram, DTS Racing) (16:48.315)

MRF Saloons (Race-1): Aakash Vivek (Chennai, Redline Racing India) (17:12.082); S Gokula Rathinam (Coimbatore, Redline Racing India) (17:14.889); Hemachandran R (Puducherry, Redline Racing India) (17:19.637)