HOCKENHEIM: Bengaluru-born Akhil Rabindra, the only Asian on the European GT4 Series Grid, finished the fifth round of the European GT4 series with a P8 and P12 finish at the Circuit Hockenheimring, Germany in the Pro-AM category.
This is the second season that Akhil is representing the Racing Spirit of Léman along with his Belgian teammate, Rodrigue Gillion as he drives the Aston Martin Vantage AMR in this season.
Akhil started the week with a P11 finish in Pre-Qualifying where he finished seven laps in 1:48.990 and finished 30th overall in the grid. In Qualifying 1, Akhil finished with a P9 in Pro-AM category and 28th overall where he finished five laps with a timing of 1:48.033. While his team member Gillion managed to secure P11 in Qualifying 2 for the team with a timing of 1:49.295 finishing six laps.
In the main races of the series, Akhil started Race 1 at P9 in the Pro-AM category and 28th overall in the grid and Gillion finished the race on P12 in the Pro-AM category. They finished 27 laps with a combined timing of 53:55.458. In Race 2, Gillion started the race at P8 in the Pro-AM category and 28th overall in the grid and Akhil finished the race in the same position in the category but one position better overall in the grid to finish an impressive weekend in Germany. They finished 33 laps with a timing of 1:02:33.164.
Talking about the race, Akhil Rabindra said, “In race one, I moved up to P22 and P6 in the category. Another car hit me which damaged my steering column and we had to drive with the bent steering column which compromised our performance. In Race two my teammate drove a great first stint and moved us to P5 in the category and I had a small contact again which dropped us to P8 in category”.
Akhil currently is in 11th position in the Pro-AM driver’s classification table with 44 points and his team, Racing Spirit of Léman is in 9th position in the Pro-AM team category with 56 points.
Akhil has had a spectacular domestic season winning the Drivers’ Championship in the inaugural season of Indian Racing League. Akhil will be back on the grid for Round 6 of the European GT4 at Barcelona in Spain which will take place from September 30 to October 1. (ANI)