Mixed weekend for Aditya Patel in Round 2 of International GT Open

After what seemed like a rather slow start in Free Practice on Friday, Aditya Patel and team-mate Cesar Companico put up a decent performance in qualifying to secure a respectable fourth place on the grid in the second round of the International GT Open. Race 1 of the 2nd round in Algarve, Portugal saw Companico take the wheel at the start. 

The Portuguese race car driver was off to a fantastic start off the line putting the Audi R8 LMS in second in the GT3 class right at the start. He then handed over the wheel to Patel who did a fantastic job taking the lead in the GT3 class, just two laps after the pit-stop. Unfortunately for the duo, three Ferrari’s closed in on him and after an intense battle Patel lost out to them to wrap up the race in fourth place. 

At the end of Race 1, Cesar Companico said, "Well, the race went better than planned but unfortunately we couldn't hold on at the end. Aditya did the best he could but that's racing and we can only move forward from here." 

After fighting it out among the front-runners in Race 1, Patel and Companico would have expected a similar performance in the shorter second race things went backward for them.  Starting 13th on the grid, eighth in the GT3 class, the Audi R8 LMS of Team Novadriver didn’t quite have the kind of start that they would have hoped for, especially after getting caught out on the wrong side before turn 1. 

To make matters worse, their Audi R8 LMS suffered a momentary problem with the throttle pedal. Patel made an extremely smart move by making a pit-stop and handing over the wheel to his team-mate when he was stuck behind a slow car. Companico put in a few really fast laps gaining five positions and moving up to seventh, but it just didn’t seem like it was their day as he got hit by another driver. Despite the incident he managed to bring the car home with an eighth place finish. 

At the end of Race 2 Aditya Patel said,  " It was a really a race for me to forget. Nothing went in my favour right from the start. That, coupled with a throttle issue and lack of straight line speed made things hard for me. Overall, it wasn't the best of weekends but it was a track where we knew we would have a hard time due to lack of speed compared to the competition. The next race is in Jerez and we don't have suck long straights there. The team is looking forward to a better race! Hopefully a podium finish!"

Round 3 of the 2014 International GT Open will be held on 21-22 June at the Circuito de Jerez, in Spain.