Aditya makes flying start to Scirocco season

CHENNAI: Aditya Patel began his 2011 Volkswagen Scirocco Cup campaign on a "positive note", finishing fourth in the season-opening race at Hockenheim in Germany on Saturday.
Sailesh Bolisetti, the other Indian on the grid, made a good debut in the series, finishing 18th among 24 drivers.
The race was won by Mateusz Lisowski of Poland, who beat Daniel Lloyd of the UK to the chequered flag.The third place went to touring car legend Nicola Larini, who was one of the six former greats who took part in the race as guest racers.
And since Larini, who was the 1993 DTM champion, is not in the championship reckoning, Aditya finds himself in third spot in the standings with 20 points. Lisowski leads the table with 30 points while Lloyd (24 pts) is second.
Aditya, after qualifying fourth for the race, made an impressive start and surprised Ola Nillson of Sweden and took third place in the opening lap.
From then on, Aditya was in a jostle for position with the lead drivers and the Indian was in the running for a podium finish till the final stages of the race.
While Aditya was trying to find his way past Lisowski and Lloyd, Larini closed in on the Indian and made his passing move with just two laps to go. The Chennai lad was disappointed that he lost a podium at the fag end of the race. But he believes the weekend was very positive.
"It's extremely encouraging to end the first round on a positive note. With a few more improvements from my side, I'm confident of better results in the races to come," said Aditya after the race.
The next race of the series will be held at Spielberg, Austria, from June 3-5.