File photo of Arjun Maini.
Mercedes-AMG driver Arjun Maini has become the first Indian to score points in the prestigious DTM Championship by achieving consecutive top-10 finishes.
Maini showed tremendous maturity by finishing 10th and a career-best seventh at the two races held at the iconic Nurburgring circuit over the weekend. After enduring a series of unfortunate incidents, the Bengaluru-based driver finally had a race weekend devoid of any on-track misfortune as he delivering a steady and measured drive in both races.
Racing for the GetSpeed team, Maini struggled to put a good lap together and could only manage a 12th place start for Race 1. The Indian made a tremendous getaway, making a few places, as the cars made their way around the first lap. However, an incident involving fellow Mercedes driver Max Bukh brought out the Safety Car, meaning the Indian had it all to do again.
The restart saw Maini make up yet more positions with the Indian establishing himself in the top 10. Unfortunately, tyre wear issues started to hamper Maini’s progress meaning that the Mercedes man was forced to nurse his car home to a 10th place finish.
While history was made on Saturday, there was more to come on Sunday. A wet Qualifying 2 session meant Maini found himself piloting a GT3 race car for the first time in wet-weather conditions.
Maini failed to qualify inside the top 10 meaning he had a mountain to climb during the second race of the weekend starting in P14 . He showed remarkable maturity in what ultimately proved to be a chaotic race that saw nine cars retire from the event.
In fact, it was a shrewd call from Maini’s GetSpeed racing team that proved to make the difference as an early and well-executed pit-stop saw the Indian make up a host of positions.
