Disappointing start for Patel
Audi India’s Aditya Patel had a disappointing start to the season with OD Racing Team WRT at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia, when early retirement in race 1 and a mid- pack start in race 2 saw the team collect just one point from the weekend.
The Audi R8 LMS GT3 had the pace but a mechanical issue cost the team at the Blancpain GT series. High temperatures in race 2 proved too harsh, causing both Mitch Gilbert and Patel to drive cautiously to stay in the race.
“As you can see from what happened last year, one point was all it took to determine the championship. So this weekend may not have been the best for us but we look at the positives and that one point is still very important in the championship fight, which has still a long way to go,” said team director Cornelius Ee.
The team struggled all weekend with pace and qualified sixth and 11th respectively but as Saturday progressed, things started to look up when Patel went from sixth at the start to third just 15 minutes into the race. A broken hose ended the team’s race.
“Sometimes things come together but this weekend for us it got hard. We found the issue and changed it, and hoped that would be better but being 11th at the start was tough,” said team manager Ron Reichert.
Gilbert started race 2 from 11th on the grid and was caught up in the pack.
He fought hard but the brakes were wearing down too fast causing him to be extra cautious as he tried to break away from the group. He maintained a good pace to hand over the car to Patel in 12th. A clean pit- stop and steady pace allowed Patel to make up two places for the team to finish the race in 10th.
“We were struggling a bit but at least we weren’t struggling with the pace and we were fairly close to the rest of the Audis. Race 1 temperature was cooler which was probably why I could fight quite a bit before the hose blew. Race 2, based on our earlier race pace, we thought we could but I guess the temperature got too hot for the car.” said Patel.
“At least we scored that one point today,” said Gilbert, “and we could’ve scored six or seven points or more. So when we have a tough weekend we just have to make sure that we keep scoring points.”
Things started to look up when Patel went from sixth at the start to third just 15 minutes into the race. A broken hose ended the team’s race.