Female finalist in FIF1 'One from a Billion' hunt

[John S]

Let's hope she's not alone in making it through, to ease the pressure on her.     
Motorsport life is tough enough without having to be a standard bearer for half the population on one's own.

Force India's 'One From a Billion' search for an Indian driver has unearthed its first female finalist.

Seven regional rounds are taking place as aspiring young drivers attempt to secure a place in the national final in September. At the latest round in Hyderabad, Abha Mankar set the fastest time to secure her place in the national final which will see 100 drivers battle it out for 10 places in a week-long Silverstone finale. Team principal Vijay Mallya said he was delighted with the response to the hunt so far.
 
"Since we launched India's first ever serious initiative and platform for young Indians to showcase their racing talent via a karting programme in India, we have had an extremely enthusiastic response in all the regional trials so far." Mallya said.
 
"The week-long Hyderabad leg of the One From a Billion Hunt has given us 14 talented finalists who will now proceed to the national final where they will compete with 86 other talented finalists later this year and I wish the 14 finalists from Hyderabad all the very best. It is a pleasure to see the Hunt get its first female finalist at the Hyderabad Regional Round."
 
© ESPN EMEA Ltd. Today.

[Alianora La Canta]

Abha was the fastest competitor of the hundreds at Hyderabad by 0.15 seconds - quite a lot, given that she was setting a sub-24 second lap time. She is definitely worth watching. Though I would tend to agree with you, John, that it would be better if other women also got through during the Chennai and Amritsar rounds

[Alianora La Canta]

It's looking good - after the first day of testing at Chennai, 4th place is held by Chandra Prakesh. Chandra is a common girl's name in India and 4th is high enough that she's likely to still be among the top 14 when the heat ends on June 5.

[Alianora La Canta]

Second female finalist confirmed - Chandra Prakesh claimed the 14th and final space in the Chennai heat. There's still one more round to go in Amritsar, for that matter...

[Alianora La Canta]

Three young women got through to the final in the end (don't know who the third one is, but the official Twitter presence for the hunt confirmed it).

Today is qualifying day for the national final and Abha Mankar is up there in the fight for pole with three young men (Parth Ghorpade (wild card entry), Arjun Maini (1st in Bangalore) and Tarun Reddy (5th in Chennai)). Barring misfortune, I would suspect they will be among the 10 going to Silverstone next month for the finale.

[John S]

Great to see that Abha's performance in Hyderabad was not just a flash in the pan and she can drive fast at other tracks too. 

[Alianora La Canta]

If I have understood the system for the National Finals correctly, Abha Mankar has become one of the 10 going to Silverstone for the week-long "finale". This will decide the 3 who will receive special assistance from Force India through their Academy scheme.

The other nine are called Nikhil (2 possible candidates since I haven't seen a surname yet), Guarav Davare (won Kolhapur), Jehan, Tarun Reddy (5th in Chennai), Ameya B (3rd in Mumbai), Masood Mohammed (4th in Bangalore), Mayur Kamat (12th in Mumbai), Parth (possibly Prathamesh Desai, who was 6th in Kolhapur) and Ananth Shanmugam (5th in Bangalore). Each driver got a top 25 position in qualifying in the national final this weekend and then came 1st or 2nd in their "heat".

Interestingly, nobody from the Amritsar or Hyderabad regional rounds appears to have made it into the finale.