DUBAI // With six podium finishes in the first seven races of the season, Australian Joey Mawson ended his frustrating wait for a win in Race 4 of the MRF Challenge Round 2 at the Dubai Autodrome on Saturday.
With championship rivals Harrison Newey, son of celebrated Formula 1 designer Adrian Newey, and Mick Schumacher both retiring in the final race of the weekend in Dubai, Mawson also moved to the top of the championship points table.
“The whole weekend has just been great,” said Mawson, who finished on the podium in all four races in Dubai, with one win, two seconds and a third.
In the first round in Bahrain last month, he had two seconds and a third from four races.
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“The car has been great all weekend and I really enjoy driving here at the Dubai Autodrome,” he said.
“My competitors had a tough day, but I am sure they will fight back and I look forward to driving in India next.”
Schumacher, son of F1 great Michael, had come to Dubai as the championship leader and was still in the lead after finishing third in Race 1, but a forgettable Day 2, where he failed to finish both races, means he has slipped to fourth with 102 points, behind Mawson (141), Newey (113) and Felipe Drugovich (105).
In Race 3, Schumacher was involved in a collision with Juri Vips on the first lap, and the incident brought both of their races to early ends. Starting Race 4 from 14th on the grid, he had blitzed his way to third before a puncture on lap 6 put him out of the race.
Newey’s Race 4 was brought to an end on the third lap due to technical problems with his car, but he still had plenty of positives to take from Dubai after surviving the safety car restart and the tricky conditions in the morning, brought on by the sandstorms.
“I am really happy to win in what was an eventful race,” said Newey, who won Race 1 on Friday.
“My start was really, really good, which got me into the lead in the first place.
“There was a bit confusion behind the safety cars, but it all came good in the end.
“I was really surprised this morning when we ran out — the amount of sand on the track on the laps to the grid and then the green-flag lap. Really, there was a lot of sand, especially off line. It was very slippery.
“So I knew that getting into the lead at the start was really important if I wanted to win the race because passing wasn’t going to be easy — off-the-line, there wasn’t really much grip.”
In the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East, Charlie Frijns, winner of Race 2 in the first round last month in Bahrain, did an encore, winning Race 2 at the Dubai Autodrome ahead of Tom Oliphant and Ryan Cullen, the winner of Race 1 in both Bahrain and Dubai.
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