Lonato (Italy): Racing prodigy Atiqa Mir keeps scaling new heights and on this occasion, the 11-year-old recorded the highest-ever race finish by an Indian in her category at World Series Karting (WSK) with a stellar P2 in Race 1 here.
Atiqa, the first Indian to be supported by Formula 1 Academy and the highest-ranked female worldwide in the OKNJ category (age 12-14), showed scorching speed in the opening race of WSK Euro Series Round 2 at the South Garda Karting here.
This was also the second time ever that a female finished P2 in a race in OKNJ class at WSK.
Atiqa has been turning heads with the sheer weight of her performances on the European circuit and this weekend among the spectators in Lonato were Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff and their star driver George Russell.
Atiqa hit her straps from the get go, finishing P2 in the warmup. In qualifying, she was a contender for pole position but missed the all important slipstream, usually worth 2 tenths of a second. Despite that, she finished fourth fastest in her group and only a 10th of a second behind the pole sitter.
The highlight of Atiqa’s weekend was unarguably Race 1 where she finished P2. She displayed strong racecraft and speed while battling the best drivers in the world. She missed P1 by only 8 tenths of a second.
Atiqa had incident filled races during the rest of the weekend with some hard racing resulting in some nosecone penalties, placing her in P12 out of 60 drivers in the Heat Rankings. The Pre Final and Final races were tough and she ended the weekend with P15 on road out of 60 drivers.
Reflecting on her performance, Atiqa said: “A breakthrough weekend for me with another strong qualifying and a P2 finish. A few incidents spoiled what could have been a really strong weekend but it wasn’t meant to be. Lots of positives this weekend and now I will prepare for the biggest race of my career in two weeks time (Championship of the Future Euro Series and FIA European Championship).”
Atiqa’s father Asif Mir, a former Formula Asia Vice Champion, said the weekend was full of racing incidents and her daughter did the best she could in the circumstances.
“A strong start to Atiqa’s weekend with good qualifying and Race 1. She struggled after that as she had outside row starts in all her remaining races but she held her own. The racing was very rough and she got nosecone penalties for no fault of hers but such is racing. Her progress is strong and we keep working hard to make her a better driver.”
