British driver Rupert Svendsen-Cook stormed back into the title fight with a dominant win in race four of the MRF Challenge 2013 Round 3 at the Bahrain International Circuit.
Svendsen-Cook won race four ahead of Shinya Michimi and Sam Dejonghe as his main title rivals faltered. Championship leader Tio Ellinas was given a drive through penalty for a jump start while Arthur Pic had to retire after a collision with Renan Guerra. Earlier in the day Tio Ellinas beat Svendsen-Cook & Pic to win race three.
In race four, Shinya Michimi started on reverse-grid pole position alongside Sam Dejonghe. Both front row drivers started well holding their positions while Svendsen-Cook had one more of his trademark starts and jumped to third place from fifth on the grid.
It took Svendsen-Cook three laps to get past Michimi to take the lead and behind him there was action all around with Ellinas getting past Dejonghe for third place. Tincknell, Pic and Guerra were involved in a close battle which ended with Guerra colliding with Pic forcing both drivers to retire on the spot.
The drama continued when Ellinas was given a drive though penalty and was forced to come in to the pits to serve the penalty, putting him out of the points. With both Pic and Ellinas out of the points, Svendsen-Cook took advantage to cross the finish line in first in first place with Michimi second and Dejonghe third.
The Indian drivers enjoyed a good weekend, marking their best finishes to date in race four with Vikash Anand finishing eighth with Raj Bharath ninth.
MRF Challenge Round 3
Bahrain International Circuit
Race 3
1 Tio Ellinas 21:07.639
2 Rupert Svendsen-Cook 21:10.470
3 Arthur Pic 21:10.659
Race 4
1 Rupert Svendsen-Cook 21:15.025
2 Shinya Michimi 21:21.987
3 Sam Dejonghe 21:26.274