Atiqa Mir charges through field to finish sixth on FIA Karting World Championship debut

Atiqa Mir charged through the field to gain 16 places and finish sixth in the opening race of the FIA Karting World Championship at La Conca, Italy, held over the weekend, on her World Championship debut. The 11-year-old is the first Indian backed by the Formula 1 Academy and competes in the 12-14 age category.

Mir suffered a heavy qualifying setback when two drivers who had crashed blocked her while rejoining the track and ruined her hot lap, leaving her second last in her group and 83rd out of 87 overall. She had only three heat races to recover her positions and represented the Kart Republic team in the event. Prior to that session, Mir had posted P3 in the Qualifying Sim Practice Session.

In Race 1 Mir produced a 16-place recovery to finish P6, a result that was also the highest by an Indian competitor that weekend. The recovery from near the back of the field underpinned her race performance in the opening event.

Across the other heats Mir climbed 10 places in Race 2 and four places in Race 3, a combined gain of 30 places from those three races. Her overall progress through the weekend reflected steady forward movement after the qualifying incident.

In the Super Heat on Sunday Mir started 14th on the grid and quickly made up five places before a crash dropped her to P16 in difficult weather conditions. That session was affected by the challenging conditions and the incident curtailed her progress.

“That was a lot of fun and I got amazing overtaking practice, that is how I treated this weekend after the qualifying disaster. That was out of my control so I took control of what I could and drove my heart out. I feel I belong at this level and with a better qualifying, I can fight at the front. I want to thank my sponsors Raise and JK Tyre without whom none of this won’t be possible,” said Atiqa reflecting on her weekend.

Atiqa's father Asif Mir, India's first national karting champion, said, "We were looking really strong for a top five result but the qualifying spoilt everything for her. (It was) such a shame as she (had) worked really hard to get up to pace. But what followed surprised even me. She is a gutsy little girl playing with the big boys, I was very impressed."

By the end of the meeting Mir had gained an overall 43 places and was ranked 40 out of 87 drivers for the weekend.