Blancpain GT Asia: Aditya Patel & Mitch Gilbert score Race 2 Silver class podium

Starting Round 4 of the 2017 Blancpain GT Series Asia at Fuji, Aditya Patel and Mitch Gilbert were fourth and sixth (1st and second in Silver class) in the two practice sessions on Friday.

The final practice on Saturday morning had the Indo-Malaysian pair in 16th overall, while seventh in Silver class before qualifying for the two races.

Qualifying for Race 1 saw #88 Silver pair of Craft Bamboo Racing’s Nick Foster & Devon Modell in Porsche 991 take pole from #5 Silver duo of Audi Hong Kong’s Marchy Lee & Shaun Thong in the Audi R8 LMS and #777 Silver pair of CarGuy Racing’s Kei Cozzolino & Naoki Yokomizo in Lamborghini Huracan.

In a tightly contested session, Patel & Gilbert were ninth overall & also the Silver category in the #86 OD Racing’s Audi R8 LMS car, a mere 0.812s off pole-sitter’s time.

The second qualifying for Race 2 saw #39 Spirit of Race Pro/Am pair of Jiang Xin & Massimilliano Wiser in the Ferrari take pole by 0.096s from #999 GruppeM Racing Team Pro/Am pair of Hunter Abbot & Maximilian Buhk’s Mercedes and #6 Audi R8 LMS Cup Pro/Am pair of Alex Au & Alex Yoong’s Audi R8 LMS.

Another close session had Patel & Gilbert in ninth overall, but third in Silver category – a mere 0.584s from the fastest time.

Race 1

After two aborted starts in Race 1 due to incidents, when things finally got going, it was disaster for Patel’s #86 Audi as he spun midway into Lap 1, dropping down the order.

The Indian then progressed all the way up to 15th from 28th, picking off his rivals one by one, before pitting to hand the car to Gilbert.

The Malaysian-born driver with Australian heritage made up further progress to move to 11th overall and eighth in the Silver class, where they would finish.

Up ahead, victory in the 34-lap race went to #777 Lamborghini driven by Cozzolino & Yokomizo in a closely-fought battle with #88 Porsche of Foster & Modell. Pro/Am’s #999 Mercedes of Abbott & Buhk completed the Top 3.

Race 2

The start of Race 2 at Fuji saw Gilbert lose one position to be 10th at the end of Lap 1, before the Malaysian started to make progress.

Amid fierce and close battles inside the Top 10, Gilbert was eighth when the pit window opened up as he dived in to hand the car to Patel.

The Indian came out in seventh, defending hard from #47 D'station Racing Porsche of Satoshi Hoshino & Seiji Ara - but couldn't keep them at bay, to drop to eighth.

Despite losing out to Hoshino, the Chennai-based driver hung on to his tail, trying to find a way past the Japanese driver, who was battling with another driver ahead.

But in the end, after 34 laps of racing, Patel had to settle for eighth with third in Silver class, a mere 0.705s behind the #47, while a further 0.500s aloof of sixth placed #888 Mercedes.

The battle for the Top 3 positions was fierce, but it was #999 Mercedes of Abbot & Buhk coming on top from #38 Spirit of SA Ferrari of Rino Mastronardi & Rui Aguas and Silver class winners #5 Audi of Lee & Thong.

After four rounds in the 2017 season, Patel & Gilbert still sit third in the overall GT3 standings with 77 points, while they are second in the Silver class with 102 in their kitty.

The championship now heads to Shanghai International Circuit for Round 5 during the September 23-24 weekend.

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