Chennai, May 1 (IANS) Aditya Patel, the 22-year old from Chennai, finished an impressive fourth in the first round of the Volkswagen Scirocco-R Cup touring car series at Hockenheimring in Germany.
Aditya, who had qualified fourth, was in the mix for a podium finish. But Nicola Larini of Italy, a former Formula One driver, slipped past him with about two laps to go and Aditya had to settle for fourth Saturday.
However, Aditya picked up 20 championship points to be in the third place in the overall standings after the first round as the 47-year-old Larini did not receive any points as he was in the legends category.
Aditya said: ‘It’s extremely encouraging to end the first round on a positive note. With a few more improvements from my side, I’m confident of better results in the races to come.’
The second round of the championship is in Spielberg, Austria, June 3-5.
At the start, Aditya managed to make the jump on fellow-pro driver, Ola Nillson of Sweden, to move into third place. From there on, it was a battle with the leaders for the top spot.
While the top three drivers, Mateusz lizowski, Daniel Lloyd and Aditya, were concentrating on holding their respective positions, Larini crept up on them and with two laps to go.
Meanwhile, the other Indian, Sailesh Bolisetti from Visakhapatnam, finished 18th on debut. The 21-year old won a race spot in the series after winning the Volkswagen Polo Cup championship in India last year.
