Harrison Newey fought off the determined Australian Joey Mawson to win the first race of the second round of the MRF Challenge Championship here on Friday.
Starting second on the grid, Mawson had grabbed pole earlier in the morning, Newey kept pace with the leader, who worked up a good speed, and overtook him midway through the 10-lap race. Mick Schumacher finished third. Newey clocked 1:57.861 to Mawson’s 1.58.042.
Mawson in his MRF F2000 had set the fastest lap (1:55.945) around the Dubai Autodrome to claim his first pole position of the season.
And he promised to do better, getting off to a great start even as Newey tried to go around the outside heading into turn 1. Mawson managed to hold on. The Briton started to close in on the Australian and on Lap 4 he succeeded in getting ahead and stayed there.
Newey, delighted to get his title ambition back on track, said “I was disappointed in the morning not to be on the pole. I had a good start and was behind Joey [Mawson] for the first few laps. It was a hard but fair battle with Joey but I managed to get past. I am really happy to win here but it is important to pick up useful points in every race this weekend.”
The results: MRF Challenge: Race 1: 1. Harrison Newey, 2. Joey Mawson, 3. Mick Schumacher, 4. Pedro Cardoso, 5. Felipe Drugovich, 6. Juri Vips, 7. Kimi Schramm, 8. Dylan Young, 9. Van Kalmthout, 10. Manuel Maldonado.
Race 2: 1. Felipe Drugovich, 2. Joey Mawson, 3. Juri Vips. 4, Mick Schumacher, 5. Pedro Cardoso, 6. Harrison Newey, 7. Kimi Schramm, 8. Rinus van Kalmthout, 9. Zane Goddard, 10. Dylan Young.
Qualifying (top five): 1 .Joey Mawson (1:55.945), 2. Harrison Newey (1:56.020), 3. Mick Schumacher (1:56.260), 4. Juri Vips (1:56.607), 5. Pedro Cardoso (1:56.682).
(R. Venkatnarayan is in Dubai at the invitation of MRF Limited)
