The first round of the Indian National Racing Championship (INRC) 2018 held in the MMRT in Chennai saw Ashish Ramasamy of Arka Motor Sports team from Bengaluru clinch pole position in the saloon class, while the MRF challenge saw Presley Martono from Indonesia grab the pole position.
In the saloon class, Ashish Ramasamy was the fastest in the free practice sessions and he carried the same form in the qualifying sessions too, where he finished with a lap time of 1:53:520, over 2 seconds quicker than team mate V Nikanth Ram from Coimbatore, who finished second. B Vijay Kumar from Prime Racing finished in third position.
Felipe Drugovich from Brazil, fresh from winning all the four races in Abu Dhabi had a great start as he grabbed the top position during the first free practice session in the MRF Challenge. But it was Presley Martono finished ahead of the Brazilian in the second free practice session and continued the same form in the qualifying session too, which helped him to grab the pole position with a lap time of 1:30:017, just 0.360 seconds ahead of Drugovich, who had to contend with second position. Rinus van Kalmthout from Netherlands finished third, 0.091 seconds behind Drugovich. Drugovich and Martono have both qualified for the front row in the fourth and final round of MRF Challenge.