Algrave (Portugal), June 8 (IANS): India's Aditya Patel and teammate Cesar Campanico, sharing the Audi R8 LMS in the GT3 class, finished fourth in the first race of the International GT Open championship here.
Driving for Team Novadriver, the 26-year-old Chennai-based Patel and Campanico qualified fourth and looked set for a podium but were eventually pushed to fourth Saturday.
After a rather slow start to the weekend during Friday practice, Patel and Campanico managed to pick up pace in qualifying and put the car fourth on the grid with the 34-year-old Portuguese behind the wheel.
Race 1, which is the longer of the two, saw Campanico take the start and do an exceptionally good job to move the car up into second place. He then stuck to the plan and handed the car to Patel during the pit stop while in second place. Patel, who had his work cut out, managed to grab the lead only two laps after the pit stop.
However, thereon things didn't go in Patel's favour. Three fast running Ferraris reeled the Audi in and after a heated battle, Patel lost out thereby finishing fourth.
"I knew I had my work cut out but I really didn't expect those cars to be running as fast as they were. The car felt great to drive and no matter how hard I tried, I could only watch as they drove by my car on the long straight. I'm really looking forward to the second race now," said Patel.
Race 2 will take place Sunday.