Podium for Aditya Patel in GT Open Series

India's Aditya Patel, driving for Audi India, JK Tyre and Amante, finished second along with Portuguese teammate Cesar Campanico in the International GT Open Series here.

The Team Nova drivers arrived here Saturday after a fairly successful season, taking four podiums and a victory. A noted change was the introduction of a second team car, driven by Fabian Hamprecht and Fernando Monje.

Both cars registered good performances through testing Thursday and free practice Friday before qualifying fifth and seventh.

Campanico, who qualified fifth on the grid in GT3 and eighth overall, had a tough start to the race, falling back a few places but managed to claw his way back up to fourth before the pitstop and driver change.

Patel then took over and put in some very quick early laps to pass the team's other car to move up to second. From there on, he pushed hard to reel in the leading car, but since time was short, maintained a steady pace to finish the race in second place.

Patel said: "It was a great result. The track was fantastic and my Audi R8 ran beautifully throughout. We are very happy to take our fifth podium for the season and hope to do even better in Sunday's race."