Aditya confident of catching up with leaders

CHENNAI: Aditya Patel would have loved to be a little above than fifth place in the standings, half way into the season in the Volkswagen Scirocco Cup.
But the 22-year-old believes in looking ahead and is confident of making a few podiums in the next four rounds to be there in the reckoning for a top-three finish in the championship at the fag end of the season.
On Sunday, the Chennai lad finished fifth in the fourth round race at Norisring in Nuremburg, Germany, after making amends on race day for a poor qualifying session which placed him seventh on the grid behind all the championship contenders.
Aditya made a brilliant start to the race and made up three places after the first corner and settled into a good rhythm, holding on to the fourth place before safety car was introduced following a race incident.
However, with four laps to go, Brit Daniel Lloyd caught up with Aditya and got the better of the Indian after a cat-and-mouse duel which lasted till the last corner of the final lap.
With the finish, Aditya (131 points) is 22 points behind the winner of the race, Swede Ola Nilsson, and nemesis Lloyd, who are tied for third spot with 153 points.
Nilsson led from pole to chequered flag on Sunday to win the race at the street circuit, known as the Monaco of Germany. Championship-leader Mateusz Lisowski (188 points) of Poland finished third while his closest rival in the title race, Stefano Proetto (160) was second.
"The top seven drivers are still very close," Aditya told ToI after the race.
"Nurburgring is next on the calendar and it is one of my favourite tracks. I am confident of getting higher results in the coming four rounds," he said, adding that he was disappointed with the Norisring result.
Sailesh Bolisetti, the second Indian on the grid, finished second on Sunday, Vizag lad's learning phase in the highly-competitive series taking a little longer than what he would have ideally wanted.