Zhuhai Race

ADITYA PATEL – ZHUHAI, CHINA Podium for Aditya Patel in his Debut Audi R8 LMS Cup. It was a rather eventful weekend for Indian GT driver, Aditya Patel at the Audi R8 LMS Cup in Zhuhai.

Patel, who has consistently been in the top three right through all practice sessions, narrowly made it into the top eight for the Qualifying shootout after a small error.

The young Indian, who is backed by Audi India, JK Racing, Amante and Jubilant Motorworks, pushed hard but only to end up in third place behind former DTM driver, Rahel Frey and Ex- F1 driver, Alex Yoong. The trio were seperated by a 1/10th of a second in qualifying, closely followed by Marchee Lee of Hong Kong.

The first race witnessed some intense action, with Alex Yoong snatching the lead from Frey instantly.

Aditya tried to take advantage of the situation but eventually had to settle in third. While it looked as though Frey had finally shaken off Patel, the Indian driver closed back up on the penulti-mate lap but still could not find a way around the Swiss female driver. Aditya had to settle for third overall and was also the winner of the 4 Rings trophy.

Race 2 saw the Indian get off to a flying start and slotting into second place by turn one. However, the race was stopped after just 4 laps due to unsafe conditions and points were not awarded to the drivers.

Aditya Patel (Team Audi R8 LMS Cup) “This is my first race in the series and I’m pretty happy with a podium, but I would have liked to have had a little more pace in qualifying. As the race went on, there was a lot going on; I had Marchy catching up from behind and that kept me on my toes, and I was also trying to plan how to catch Rahel. I used Push-to-Pass to catch Rahel and tried to make a move, but couldn’t make it stick. The second race also looked good for a podium until it had to be stopped due to unsafe conditions. I’m looking forward to the next round in Korea!”