Arthur Pic to lock horns with Ellinas and Svendsen-Cook

Arthur Pic, the Formula Renault 3.5 driver, will lock horns with GP3 driver Tio Ellinas and British driver Rupert Svendsen-Cook in the MRF Challenge 2013’s second round to be held at the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC), Sakhir, Bahrain, from November 28 to 30.

Pic leads the table with 35 points, followed by Ellinas (30) and Svendsen-Cook (25).

This round will have four races, apart from two free practice sessions and one qualifying session, and will be one of the main support race for the World Endurance Championship.

Other races during the weekend include the FIA WEC and the Porsche GT3 Cup.

This will be the first time that an Indian series, which includes race cars made in India and run on Indian tyres, will race internationally. Also, MRF Formula 2000 cars will be seen in action.

Pic had won the first race of the season at the Buddh International Circuit (BIC) in Greater Noida, New Delhi, during the last week of October while Svendsen-Cook took the honour’s in the second race of the same event.

Young Indian driver Raj Bharath, who had a successful year in the Formula Masters China Series with race wins, pole positions and podium finishes, will join the team at Bahrain. He will be there along with other Indian drivers, Parth Ghorpade and Vikash Anand, on the grid.

Incidentally, Bharath and Ghorpade are the only two Indians to race internationally in single-seater categories this year along with MRF’s Narain Karthikeyan.

The drivers’ line-up: Arthur Pic, Harry Tincknell, Ryan Cullen, Tio Ellinas, Rupert Svendsen-Cook, Sam Brabham, Sh. Salman Bin Rashid Al Khalifa, Bar Baruch, Vikash Anand, Laura Tillett, Sam Dejonghe,Christophe Mariot, Renan Guerra, Sean Walkinshaw, Dylan Young, Parthiva Sureshwaren, Ashwin Sundar, Abdulla Al-Thawadi, Parth Ghorpade.