Saishiva and Bonu Stay Unbeaten as MRF Round 2 Opens

Round 2 of the 2026 MRF Indian National Racing Challenge 4W opened with the front of the championship moving in familiar directions. Saishiva Sankaran won MRF Formula 2000 Race 1, Bhuvan Bonu took MRF Formula 1600 and Viswas Vijayaraj extended his Formula LGB 1300 Open winning run. The first day also carried a red flag, a restart and two junior categories that were decided over a shortened distance.

This is a Saturday report, built from the provisional classifications released after the 26 September programme. The meeting continues on Sunday, 27 September, so this article records the leaders and the shape of the opening day without presenting the Round 2 result as complete.

The organiser’s current event promotion and the Saturday race report identify Madras International Circuit in Chennai as the venue. The MRF calendar page currently displays KMS, Coimbatore for the same date window. ViPeople is following the live organiser promotion for this report and will reconcile the public event metadata if the championship calendar is corrected.

Sankaran makes it four in a row in MRF F2000

Saishiva Sankaran arrived at Round 2 with the momentum of three consecutive MRF F2000 wins from the opening round. The Pune driver kept that sequence alive on Saturday, holding off defending champion Ishaan Madesh and Mumbai’s Krishay Gutte in an eight-lap Race 1.

Madesh had qualified fourth and made up two places by Turn 2, which placed the defending champion in the fight for the lead group early. Sankaran built the margin as the laps passed, then managed the gap to the flag. The provisional order lists Sankaran first in 12:52.987, Madesh second in 12:53.390 and Gutte third in 13:02.171.

The result is important beyond the points. Sankaran’s opening-round treble had set a high reference, while Madesh’s return to the 2026 field added the driver most likely to challenge it. A 0.403-second gap between the top two gives Sunday a clear question: can Madesh turn his pace into a win, or can Sankaran keep controlling the class?

Bonu keeps the Formula 1600 streak alive

Bhuvan Bonu’s Saturday victory extended a different run. The 16-year-old from Visakhapatnam had taken two wins in the opening round, and he added another in Race 1 at Round 2 after a close opening phase with Tanmay Kothari and Gyan S.

Bonu crossed the line in 14:02.774, with Kothari 2.525 seconds behind and Gyan a further 1.776 seconds back. The gap gives the result a clean look, though the race itself demanded patience before Bonu could open the advantage. The Formula 1600 field remains one of the weekend’s key development stories because its youngest drivers are already working through the pressure of repeated national-level starts.

Viswas Vijayaraj gives DTS Racing another Open-class win

Viswas Vijayaraj’s Formula LGB 1300 Open victory carried the strongest numerical streak of the day. The Nellore driver had completed a treble in Round 1, and Saturday’s win made it four consecutive victories in the class. He also led a DTS Racing podium sweep in a race that was interrupted and restarted.

The provisional two-lap classification places Vijayaraj first in 03:54.047, ahead of team-mate Liron Jaden Samuels in 03:55.174 and Thrissur’s Diljit TS in 03:55.260. The short distance makes every launch and every position change matter. A driver can have the pace to win across a full race and still lose the result in the first braking zone when a restart resets the order.

Rajapaksa leads the Junior class after a difficult restart

Sri Lankan schoolboy Kaveen Diyyan Rajapaksa continued his perfect Junior-class start to the season with a controlled win for Momentum Motorsports. Pranav Ramasamy and Shatveer Shetty completed the provisional top three, with only 0.057 seconds separating the second and third places.

The Junior contest was recorded over two laps after an incident caused a stoppage. That reduced distance changes the nature of the race. Drivers have less time to settle into a rhythm, tyre management becomes a smaller part of the result and the opening lap carries almost the entire weight of the competition. Rajapaksa handled that pressure best, finishing in 04:02.111.

These four tables are the complete class results published for Saturday’s provisional release: F2000, F1600, Formula LGB 1300 Open and Formula LGB 1300 Junior. The release did not include a classification for the Volkswagen Polo Cup, Super Stock or MRF Saloons races, so ViPeople is leaving those classes marked pending rather than filling the gap with an unverified order.

Eight races, six classes and a full Sunday still to run

The Round 2 field includes 51 entries across the two MRF Formula categories, Formula LGB 1300, the Volkswagen Polo Cup, Super Stock and MRF Saloons. The saloon categories bring a different rhythm to the weekend from the single-seaters. Drivers must manage heavier cars, closer braking fights and the reliability demands that come with repeated sprint races.

That variety is the strength of the national challenge. Sankaran and Madesh represent the front of the open-wheel ladder. Bonu and Kothari are building the next layer of Formula 1600 competition. Vijayaraj and Rajapaksa arrive with winning momentum in LGB 1300, while the saloon fields give established teams a direct test of preparation and consistency.

Sunday brings the remaining races and the chance for the provisional leaders to turn a strong opening into a weekend result. Madesh has already signalled that he expects a better performance on Day 3. Bonu will need to defend his Formula 1600 run against a field that has seen his pace. Vijayaraj and Rajapaksa will face the pressure that follows a win, especially when the grids are reset and the points are still available.

Why the MRF weekend matters

The MRF Indian National Racing Challenge is one of India’s clearest routes from karting and club racing into professional circuit competition. Its value sits in the repetition. A driver learns to qualify, launch, manage a restart, read a changing field and return to the next grid with the car ready. Those lessons are difficult to reproduce in a single showcase race.

Round 2 has already shown that the season’s opening form was real. Sankaran, Bonu and Vijayaraj have carried their winning sequences into the next meeting, while Madesh’s return gives the premier class a new pressure point. The rest of the weekend will decide how much those early patterns mean, yet Saturday has supplied a strong first chapter.

ViPeople will append the Sunday results and any missing saloon-category classifications once the organiser or championship media release publishes the final provisional sheets. Until then, the accurate record is complete for the four published Saturday classes: Sankaran won MRF F2000 Race 1, Bonu won MRF F1600 Race 1, Vijayaraj and Rajapaksa topped the two LGB 1300 classes, and Round 2 remains live.