Karting: Another top-10 finish for Ruhaan Alva

Castelletto (Italy), June 4: India’s Ruhaan Alva delivered his second consecutive top-10 finish as he ended up eighth in the 100cc category in the fourth round of the Easykart Italia championship here on Sunday.

The 11-year old schoolboy from Bengaluru, supported by Play Factory and Birel Art India, and who had finished ninth in the previous round last month, promised much ahead of the race when he was the quickest in the last practice session that saw 15 drivers separated by just 0.5 seconds.

Starting the pre-final race in sixth spot, just two-tenths off pole position, he qualified seventh on the grid for Sunday’s final. Ruhaan started the final hoping to make places, but lost two positions in the very first lap, but recovered to move back to seventh.

Picking up the pace, Ruhaan managed to join the front-running bunch and was lining up to make few more places when an incident damaged his chassis that slowed him down considerably. As the race progressed, a struggling Ruhaan dropped a couple of spots to eventually finish ninth but was elevated to eighth following a penalty to a driver who was ahead of him.

Ruhaan’s next engagement is the fifth round of the championship to be held at the Pomposa circuit on June 23-24.