Having struggled with engine problems during practice, Indian driver Aditya Patel and his Portuguese teammate, Cesar Campanico put in impressive qualifying performance for both races. While Cesar managed to secure pole in GT3 and second overall, Aditya Patel, driving the Audi R8 LMS put the car on overall pole position for race two, ahead of even the faster Super GT Cars.
Earlier on, the team did not have time to work on a good set up for the dry conditions predicted for the weekend.
Race one saw Campanico being eaten by the much faster accelerating cars on the star and found himself down in fifth by lap one. But the Portuguese then managed to take advantage of a few incidents in front to take the lead of the GT3 class. However, a botched up pitstop dropped them to third place after the Patel took the wheel and an incident after the safety car restart saw Patel cross the line in fifth.
After doing some work on the setup, Patel started race two from pole position. However, he also found himself being chewed up by faster cars before turn one and fell to sixth overall (third in GT3). He then handed the car to Campanico who continued running at the same pace and brought the car home in a commendable third place.
Patel said, “Qualifying in the rain worked brilliantly for us. It was amazing to be on pole position in the International GT Open!”
“We knew it would be tough if it dried out though. But to score a podium and valuable points in both races still keeps our hopes for a top three championship finish alive!”, he added.
Race results:
International GT Open Race 2
Silverstone Circuit
Position Drivers Car Total time
1 Joan Vinyes/José M. Pérez Ferrari 458 Italia 1.01'46.676
2 Matteo Beretta/Joël Camathias Porsche 997 GT3 1.02'00.989
3 César Campaniço/Aditya Patel Audi R8 LMS Ultra 1.02'03.324