Aron, Schumacher win apiece

Manama : Ralf Aron from Estonia won comfortably the third race of the weekend in the MRF Challenge and Mick Schumacher followed suit in race four, earning him a double for the weekend after winning race two on Friday.

In race three, pole-sitter Harrison Newey had a torrid start and got jumped by the chasing pack heading into the first corner.

Australian Joey Mawson took the lead with Aron in second and Schumacher third. Schumacher pulled off a brilliant overtaking move into turn nine to get past Aron, but the latter struck back down the main straight to get back into second place.

Newey was forced to retire on lap one, which brought out the safety car for the first time this season. At the restart, Aron wasted no time in overtaking Mawson and then pulled away, winning by a margin of 6.566 seconds.

Schumacher came under late pressure from Drugovich, but the German managed to hold on to third position by the slimmest of margins (+0.248) with Juri Vips fifth ahead of Pedro Cardoso and Kimi Schramm.

In the fourth race, Schumacher got the jump on pole-sitter Cardoso for second place behind Vips and on turn nine Schumacher pounced and got past Vips for the lead and pull away for victory.

In the battle for the final podium place, Joey Mawson and European F3 regular Aron for fourth and they were soon joined by Newey, who made up eight places to sixth in the opening few laps.

Newey managed to go past Aron at turn one on lap four to move into the top five and later was gifted fourth after a Mawson mistake.

Schumacher crossed the line in first place ahead of first-time podium winner Vips and Cardoso.  “I am happy with the overall start to the championship. In the last race I felt it was important to get past Juri soon in order to get the win. The circuit was enjoyable to drive on and I now look forward to the next race,” after the race, Schumacher said.

The second round of the MRF season takes place at Dubai Autodrome on December 9 and 10.