MRF Championship: Rookie Picariello wins in Bahrain leg

MANAMA: Rookie Alessio Picariello emerged triumphant in the Bahrain leg of the 2015 MRF Championship at Sakhir on Friday. Pietro Fittipaldi of Brazil finished second while Russian Nikita Troitckii was third. Fittipaldi, who is the grandson of two-time Formula One world champion Emmerson Fittipaldi, emerged the overall leader with 98 points ahead of Troitckii (86 points) and Tatiana Calderon (84) at the end of the second round of the four-round challenge.
Though Picariello started from sixth in the reverse grid, he got off to a blistering start. By the end of the opening lap he had moved behind Matheus Leist, who was leading the pack, and blazed ahead towards the end of the second lap.
Thereafter, there was no stopping Picariello as he dished out another dominant show, notching up the fastest lap time in 2 min 2.251 sec before finishing the 10-lap race a good 5.081 seconds ahead of second-placed Fittipaldi in 20 min 32.866 sec.
The Belgian was quite excited with his superlative show. "Everything has been perfect this weekend. I have not raced for a year now but felt comfortable with the car straight away. I had a good start, moved into third position in the second corner, then to second two corners later and finally into the lead. After that it was just about managing the pace. I worked well with my engineer so very happy with this weekend," said Picariello, who is fifth (56 points) in the overall rankings. With two more legs to go, Picariello will be the favourites to win the overall title.