The young guns of the 2015 Toyota Racing Series are not holding back in an effort to get on to the podium. When some of the heart-in-the-mouth passing manoeuvres are taking place the pit lane holds its collective breath.
Fortune may favour the brave, but when it goes wrong, it can go spectacularly wrong. The fourth round of the TRS championship at Taupo over the weekend was a case in point. On Saturday Russian GP2 driver Artem Markelov was punted off the circuit on two separate occasions through no fault of his own.
The accolade of the most spectacular crash, though, goes to Frenchman Brandon Maisano. On the opening lap of the feature race for the Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy, four drivers tried to fit through turn one and it was Maisano who was spat out vertically before crashing back to earth upside down.
In a testament to the robustness of the new FT50 racecar, the 21-year-old clambered out unscathed with the help of the marshals.
The accident was a bit of a sad end to the weekend for Maisano who had already notched up two race wins and looked ready to take the fight to championship leader Canadian Lance Stroll.
“I am okay after the crash, which is the main thing, and this sort of thing happens in racing,” said a philosophical Maisano. “The two races before that [two wins] the car has been good. The track is difficult to race on but the points from the two wins are good. I have been trying to improve my racing from the beginning of the championship, but I still need to improve some more.”
Maisano’s wins before his big off had put him into championship contention with Stroll having leapfrogged Arjun Maini on the points ladder. The Indian driver has been one of the most consistent over the four rounds but has been pinged with two post-race penalties. One earlier in the series and another over the weekend saw him stripped of two race wins for jumping the start – albeit by centimetres.
After Maisano’s car was removed from the circuit, Maini controlled the restart from the front to lead the field away. Despite immense pressure, first from Irishman Charlie Eastwood and them Markelov, the young Indian showed great maturity and racecraft beyond his years to hold off the baying pack to take the win yesterday afternoon.
“It’s been an up and down weekend but you have to put what’s happened in the past behind you and concentrate on the race at hand,” said a pleased and relieved Maini.
“To win the Denny Hulme Memorial race is brilliant but it should have been two race wins this weekend. Put it this way – I have learned a lot over the weekend and I don’t think I’ve driven two better races in my life.
“I hope I can keep improving and I can get better, especially heading to Manfeild for the last round and the New Zealand Grand Prix.”
