Sandeep 12th among juniors in Scirocco R-Cup

India's Sandeep Kumar finished 12th in junior category and 19th overall on debut in the Scirocco R-Cup 2013 here.

The first race of Scirocco R-Cup, held here last weekend, was a good opportunity for Sandeep Kumar as he went up against some of the best racing drivers and legends from DTM and F1 in his first ever international race.

For the Indian, it was a steep learning curve to understand the circuit of Hockenheim and then build up on the pace. The next challenge was to battle the competition in varying weather conditions. Friday practice session was in dry conditions, while the qualifying and race took place in wet weather. Push-to-pass technology was another area where Sandeep had some learning to do.

Sandeep started the race from 19th spot on the grid. Early in the race, he made some aggressive moves, overtaking four competitors to come up to 15th place.

However, due to lack of a strong strategy of using push-to-pass, Sandeep suffered in the latter half of the race when he lost two positions.

Further, a mistake towards the end of the race forced him to drop down the order and settle for 19th, the same position that he had started from.

"It was a great weekend with a lot of learning which I will like to carry forward to my next races. I made a few mistakes and didn't use the push-to-pass wisely. The wet weather also gave me an opportunity to judge the abilities of the Scirocco R-Cup race car in tricky conditions," said Sandeep Kumar.

Nicola Larini, the legendary DTM racer took the top spot on the podium while Kasper Jensen (Pro) from Denmark took second and Michele Gatting (Pro) took third.

Scirocco R-Cup 2013 will now move to Spielberg, one of the most popular race tracks in Austria. Race 2 and 3 will be conducted at this circuit from May 31 to June 02 alongside DTM round.