Indian Formula 2 driver Kush Maini suffered a massive crash at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix F2 feature race on Sunday. Starting fifth on the grid, Kush Maini’s car failed to launch off the line at the start of the race. With his car stalled on the grid, a lot of cars managed to evade Maini, before he was slammed into by a car from behind causing a huge crash and immediately bringing out the red flag. Thankfully, Maini and all the drivers involved in the incident managed to walk away safe.
Maini, driving for Invicta Racing, had qualified a strong fifth for the feature race. After missing out on points in the sprint race on Saturday, the Indian was hoping to make amends. However, his race came to an early and abrupt end due to the massive incident, which saw cars go upside down.
Watch: Kush Maini (yellow car) suffers devastating crash in F2 race
Impactante!
As fue el incidentado inicio de carrera en la F2 de Baku donde se vieron involucrados Kush Maini, Pepe Marti y Oliver Goethe.
Afortunadamente, los pilotos estn bien. #F2 #AzerbaijanGP pic.twitter.com/vZ2ryJ4vqI
— Formuleros (@formuleros_py) September 15, 2024
Spanish driver Pepe Marti and Danish-German driver Oliver Goethe were the others massively affected by the crash. However, they also managed to escape without any major injury. The fact that all drivers were safe displayed another highlight of increased safety in motorsport.
Maini is currently in his second season in Formula 2, and also a part of the driver academy of Alpine F1 Team, for whom Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon currently race. However, Ocon will be replaced by Australian rookie Jack Doohan in 2025. Maini is presently fighting to land a reserve driver role at Alpine for next season.
After a strong start to the 2024 F2 season, Maini’s form plateaued mid-season, and he currently finds himself 11th in the Driver’s Championship standings. His teammate, Brazilian driver Gabriel Bortoleto, leads the championship.
After the race was restarted, the Azerbaijan GP feature race was won by Dutch driver Richard Verschoor, followed by France’s Victor Martins and Italy’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The latter will be succeeding Lewis Hamilton at Formula 1 team Mercedes in 2025.
