Harrison Newey triumphs at the opening round Bahrain in the MRF Challenge 2016.
Harrison Newey, the 18-year old, blew competition away at the season opener of the MRF Challenge 2016 held in Bahrain on the 18 November. The young man owned the day right from qualifying and carried the momentum into the race as well.
Harrison Newey is the son of the legendary F1 designer Adrian Newey. Joey Mawson was the leader for a good half of the session until Newey blew everyone away with a stellar lap time of 2:00.316. It is the fastest time any MRF F2000 car has ever set on that track. That effort sealed the pole position for Newey. Mawson claimed the second place on the grid after he posted a lap time of 2:00.628. Immediately behind the race leaders were Ralf Aron, Mick Schumacher and Van Kalmthout.
The race didn’t start well for Kalmthout as he encountered problems on the grid and had to retire from the race. When the lights went out, Newey made a clean break and took advantage of his pole position. Mawson stayed in second and was closely followed by Schumacher and Aron. On the second lap, Aron landed a pass on Schumacher that sent him shooting into third position. Then ensued a battle for second place between Aron and Mawson where they went side by side for a few corners until Aron got the better of him and surged ahead. Meanwhile, Juri Vips pulled a fast one on Schumacher, literally. All this chaos enabled Newey to extend his lead to a cool five seconds as he raced past the finish line securing the win. He was followed by Aron, Mawson and Vips in the second, third and fourth place respectively.
When asked to comment about the race, Aron had this to say, “Am absolutely thrilled to finish in second place after a great battle with Mawson. I did not have the best start but managed to pick off Vips and Schumacher in the second lap. It was a clean fight with Mawson and I am happy to start the season with a podium. I should have been higher up in qualifying but I will take this result.”
Race winner Newey was ecstatic when he talked to the media, “I could not have hoped for a better start to the season. In qualifying the car was just great and I was able to extract maximum from it. I had the perfect getaway and after that it was all about controlling the pace. I hope I can carry this same form for the rest of the weekend.”
