06 August 2018, Brands Hatch: J.K.Racing backed Kush Maini has come back strongly after a difficult weekend at Spa last time round, with two exciting P6 finishes in Race 1 & Race 3 and in between an impressive drive to finish on the podium in Race 2. By claiming 56 points in this round, he has now solidified 3rdplace in the driver’s championship with 321 points, 19 points ahead of 4thplaced Tom Gamble.
Maini started the weekend with minimal time out on the full track, having just one 20 minute practice session before qualifying. Qualifying in P6 just 0.379s off pole, Kush had a steady Race 1, finishing in the position he started the race in.
Race 2, which had the reverse grid start, saw Kush begin the race from P10. He had a busy race from lap 1 holding on to his 10th place with some gritty driving, but frantic action on lap two saw him surge past the cars ahead of him into P5, before the safety car was deployed. He dropped a position after the restart, but was up to fourth by lap nine, and claimed his podium after Pavan Ravishankar’s penalty was applied.
Kush started the final race of the weekend from P8 on the grid, he carried over some of the great form from his previous race and after some exciting racing action, he ensured he finished in P6 comfortably with over a 10-second gap back to seventh placed Maldonado.
Talking about his race, Kush Maini said, “I started 10th, got a bad start but made it up in the first lap. After that there was chaos at the front and I just kept my nose clean and looked for the opportunities. It’s my eighth podium of the year so I’m happy, but we’ve had a few tough races, it’s good to be back here, but we will be pushing harder to get back on the top step.”There were plenty of battles raging and I thought there was going to be a bit of contact so I took different lines and got people on the exits, and I’m really happy with my race.”
