Aditya Patel teams up with Mitch Gilbert to grab podium spot in Blancpain GT

Aditya Patel, the racing talent backed by none less than Audi India together with his Malaysian teammate Mitch Gilbert pulled out an scintillating performance in the second round of the Blancpain GT series in Thailand. The duo drove an impressive Audi R8 LMS for OD racing in the Chang International Circuit in the Asian country on Sunday. Mitch Gilbert grabbed the final podium with only thirty seconds left on the clock.

The pair had a disappointing race on Saturday when they were forced to retire following a damage caused by an incident on lap one. The duo did not lose hope and came blazing on the second day and made up for the lost points from the previous outing, zipping from 11th on the grid to finish an impressive 3rd.

The Audi R8 was initially driven by Aditya Patel who got off to a flying start. He passed three cars into turn one and also managed to come out unscathed from a massive 5 car pile up to grab the 4th spot by the end of lap one. The period after the safety car intervention saw Patel in a fierce battle with Shaun Thong who was a handful for the Indian driver, losing track position to him. Eventually, the car was driven by Mitchell Gilbert.

The Malaysian racer too had a tight call racing it out with Marchy Lee until the very end, just moving up from the 5th position to the third during the final moments of the race.

“In all honesty, I know the weekend could’ve been so much better, but at the end of the day we’re all racing and everybody wants to win. Mitch and I worked hard right from practice to be up on pace but unfortunately qualifying and race one didn’t go our way. The podium in race two is definitely what we needed to keep us in the game. We know we can fight harder in Suzuka,” said a thrilled Aditya Patel after the race.