Armaan on podium at Brands Hatch

Young Indian driver Armaan Ebrahim finished third in the first race of the second round in the Blancpain FIA GT Series at the Brands Hatch here Sunday, marking a successful return after having suffered a high speed crash in the opening round in Nogaro, France, last month.

Driving for Fortec Motorsports in the Silver Cup Class, the Chennai driver finish third in the race, which was tough going on him with a dislocated collar bone and a cracked rib in the sprint race.

"A podium in the Silver Cup was a good start after a bad crash in the last round in France," Armaan said.

"It takes a bit of time to get back in the groove especially when you have to contend with acute pain in the collar bone and ribs which makes it very difficult to be aggressive with the steering wheel in the high speed corners," he added.

As the original car was completely written off and the new car due to arrive in another two weeks, Armaan drove the teams second car along with a new teammate, Miguel Torel.

The grid being one of the most competitive in GT Racing with as close to six F1 drivers and most others being platinum and gold category drivers representing Factory teams, the top 14 cars were all within a second in Qualifying.

"I am driving the Mercedes SLS AMG for the first time and it does require quite a bit of pre-season testing, and unfortunately we have not been fortunate to have that.

"The pace is getting better every time we are out on track and by the end of Race 1 we were pretty much up there on older tyres. We need to understand the higher grip levels with new tyres and also the right technique required to be quick in this car.

"I have a new teammate for this race who is also new to GT cars, and hopefully my original team mate will be back by the next race," he said.