Alpine junior and Indian racing driver Kush Maini disaqualified from Formula 2 qualifying after securing historical pole position

Indian F2 driver Kush Maini was disqualified from the 2024 Sakhir Round 1 qualifying session after bagging a historic pole position.

Maini became the first Indian racing driver to clinch a pole position at the F2 Championship when he topped the timing sheets in Bahrain on Thursday (February 29). However, it was later announced by the FIA officials that all his qualifying laps, including his pole lap, were not counted since his car breached the technical regulations.

The race stewards inspected Maini's car after qualifying and found that the height of the left undertray front external strake of the car was below the required minimum height. Hence, Invicta Racing's car was not in line with Articles 3.4.1 and 3.4.2 of the 2024 F2 Championship Technical Regulations.

The Alpine junior will start the Sprint and Feature race from the back of the grid. Since Maini's teammate at Invicta Racing, Gabriel Bortoleto, was second in the qualifying session, he will now be on pole.

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Kush Maini shares how he received a call from his idol, Mika Hakkinen

Indian F2 driver Kush Maini recently shared how he ended up speaking to his idol and two-time F1 world champion, Mika Hakkinen.

In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda, Maini recalled how he named Hakkinen as his idol during his F2 interviews. A few months after the interview, Maini's father bumped into the Finnish driver in Monaco.

"Funny story actually, if you saw the interview that F2 put up, that interview was taken in Bahrain when they asked the drivers who their role models were and I had said Mika Hakkinen and he didn't know me at all and I had never spoken to him or whatever. Fast forward like four months and my dad ran into him in Monaco and Mika and my dad started sharing stories," Kush said.

Kush Maini explained how Mika Hakkinen did a background check on him and finally received a call from his idol.

"Mika got really interested," he added. "He left, he did his background check. I think I was P4, P5 in the championship then. He did his background check, he did a lot of research and then obviously Mika came back and said he wanted to speak to me. So this was before Silverstone, I was in my hotel room after training at campus and I got a call literally from my idol and that was surreal."

Ever since their first conversations, Mika Hakkinen has been mentoring the Indian rookie and supporting him in his journey to F1.