Kush Maini handed penalty after surviving crash in Azerbaijan race

Hyderabad: Indian race driver Kush Maini was handed a penalty by the Formula 2 race stewards after surviving a crash during the Formula 2 race preceding the Formula One Azerbaijan Grand Prix race.

Maini’s car stalled at the start of the race after the engine of his car stopped working suddenly leading to a crash. As Maini’s car stalled suddenly, fellow racers Josep Maria Marti and Oliver Goethe were left unsighted leading to a massive collision.

Fortunately, all drivers came out unscathed. The Azerbaijan F2 race was won by Richard Verschoor of Trident.

Maini’s car was totally destroyed in the impact and the race stewards, after examining all evidence, ruled that it was the Indian driver’s fault and handed him a time penalty, which subsequently was changed to a grid penalty as the racer did not compete in the race.

After the crash, medical checkups were done on all drivers, including the 23-year-old Indian, and all reports did not return any abnormality.

Maini races for Invicta Racing and is currently 11th in the standings. This is his second Formula 2 season.

A statement from Formula 2 confirmed that it was Maini’s fault leading to the collision as the race stewards ruled that the Indian had not followed all procedures at the start of the race. “After the race, the Stewards heard from the Team Representative and examined available video evidence before determining that the driver of Car 9 had failed to engage the Start Set Up Procedure for the start of the race, an error that led to the car stalling on the grid causing the subsequent collision,” the statement read.

The Formula 2 statement detailed the penalty they were imposing on Maini. “The Stewards determined that because of this, Maini was wholly responsible for the collision and, as a result, elected to hand him a 10-second time penalty. With Maini not finishing the Feature Race, his time penalty has been converted into a five-place grid penalty,” the statement added.

Since Maini did not feature in the Azerbaijan F2 race, he will serve the penalty in the next race.