Kush Maini gets maiden podium in FIA F3 in Budapest

India's Kush Maini, in car number 12 and donning the Mumbai Falcons livery, drove a very mature and balanced race to secure his maiden podium in FIA Formula 3 in front of a packed crowd in Budapest.

Showers just before the beginning of the sprint race which is run over 40 minutes made sure that the race was declared a wet race and started under the safety car which did two formation laps to give the drivers a chance to understand the tricky conditions. The two safety car interventions made sure that Maini fought his way through and found himself in P5.

In the fight for fourth, Maini was a man on a mission in the second MP Motorsport car, diving down the inside of Martins and then setting about putting Hadjar under pressure, while the leading duo began to pull away from the pack. Hadjar's overly wide line off on to the run-off at turn 13 gave Maini a chance to pounce. The Indian driver had no hesitation in breezing past him at turn four and forcing Hadjar to go on the defensive from fellow Red Bull junior Crawford.

It was clear that the Frenchman's tyres had fallen off their cliff as he slowly started to slip down the order behind Crawford and Leclerc and straight into Martins' eyeline.

"I am extremely happy that finally my pace converted to a podium and I was able to fight my way from P7. Really proud of my team MP to give me a competitive car and gave me the chance to stand on the podium," Maini said.