Lausitz (Germany), June 7 (IANS) India’s Aditya Patel delivered a seventh place finish overall and third in the Pro Cup class in the second round of the Volkwagen Scirocco Cup car series at the Euro Speedway here.
Starting sixth, Aditya moved up to fifth on lap 1, and then to fourth soon after with a comfortable gap on the fifth placed driver here Sunday. However, a crash brought out the Safety Car and the gap closed and by then, the 21-year old from Chennai had used most of the boost button.
He was left with only five push-to-pass boosts as against nine for the front runners and seven for those behind him. In the event, he rapidly lost position when the race re-started and had to settle for seventh.
In the championship standings, Aditya is currently placed fourth overall and second in the Pro Cup category.
‘Starting sixth on the grid, my plan was to gain places early by using the push-to-pass button a few times. The idea was to break away from the rest of the field with the leaders. By lap 2, I was in fourth and had a reasonable gap to fifth place.
‘Then, the safety car came out. Now I could use the push to pass five more times. Three laps later, while trying to defend fourth from Arne Larisch, I ended up out braking Dennis Reiger for third. With four push-to-pass left and seven laps to go, I knew I couldn’t hold on to third for long.
‘Down to the last three laps and no push-to-pass left, I could only hope for a miracle. That didn’t happen and all I could do was watch four cars pass me using the push-to-pass for one last time. I know it could’ve been better. It was a fine lesson learnt in boost management,’ he said.
Earlier, Aditya was fifth quickest in free practice and qualified sixth, but very much on pace.
