Chennai gears up for MRF Challenge 2016 finale

Chennai’s Madras Motor Race Track (MMRT) will play host to the fourth and final round of the MRF Challenge 2016 which will be held from February 17 to 19, 2017.

With 211 points, German F4 champion Joey Mawson heads to the championship finale with a 27 points lead over Harrison Newey and a 40 points lead over Mick Schumacher. Mawson is the only driver to have finished in the points in all races this season. Schumacher and Newey have both shown tremendous pace all season, but the former has had three DNFs, while the latter has had two over the course of the season, so far.

With over 100 points still up for the grab over the weekend, however, the championship will go down to the wire.

The final round will once again see leading young drivers from across the globe competing against each other, including Red Bull Junior and F3 driver Dan Ticktum. He will be joined by 2015 Italian F4 Champion and F3 race winner Ralf Aron, who returns along with Japanese F3 Champion (National Class) Yoshiaki Katayama and Manuel Maldonado, cousin of former Formula 1 driver Pastor Maldonado.

The MRF 1600 series will also be in action with Round 2 of the series taking place this weekend. Round 1 saw Ananth Shanmugam and Nayan Chaterjee taking wins to be joint leaders at the top of the championship, with Anindith Reddy just behind the leaders. Joining them will be former champion Karthik Tharani Singh, Chetan Korada and Siddharth Trivellore.
Both the Free Practice sessions will take place on Friday, February 17, with Qualifying and Races 1 and 2 scheduled for Saturday, February 18. Finally, Races 3 and 4 will be taking place on Sunday, February 19.

Arun Mammen, Managing Director, MRF Tyres, commented: “The final round in Chennai always brings a lot of excitement and this time will be no different. The Championship has been closely contested featuring some of the best young drivers from across the world. The cars have been three-four seconds faster this year and we expect the MMRT to witness even faster times. We eagerly wait to see who will be crowned the MRF Challenge 2016 Champion and look forward to a thrilling weekend ahead.”

The MRF stunt bike show will be yet another attraction over this race weekend.