Akhil Rabindra’s second round performance at the European GT4 Championship 2021 was marred by technical glitches at the Circuit Paul Ricard. The 24 year old Bengaluru born driver who also is the only Indian at the European GT4 Championships this season finished at P16 in the silver category. Akhil driving an Aston Martin Vantage GT4 for the AGS Events Racing team took to the drivers seat in Race 2 after he and his teammate Hugo Conde had to retire after 16 laps in Race 1 due to a engine issues. Akhil is also the only Asian to have made it to the coveted Aston Martin Racing drivers academy in 2021, a feat that he has achieved for the third straight year in a row.
Akhil & Hugo earlier had to retire due to a faulty engine in Race 1 after having qualified at P14 in the qualifying race. Race 1 saw them completing 16-laps in 38:29.167 minutes. Post this Akhil took the steering in Race 2 scripting an impressive run to finish P15 in the Silver category. Akhil completed Race 2 in 1:01:40.275 minutes on Sunday evening (30th May,2021) at Circuit Paul Ricard to finish at an overall 29th place from a grid of 41 cars.
Rabindra commented, “There’re plenty of opportunities for us to improve and we’ll be working on it. I, personally, have grasped a lot and can’t wait to work on my shortcomings to better my performances for the upcoming races now.”
The European GT4 Series now moves to Circuit Zandvoort, Netherlands for Round 3 of the Championship from June 18 – 20, 2021. The race can be watched LIVE on the YouTube Page of European GT4 Series .
About European GT4 Championship:
The GT4 European Series is a sports car championship created and organised by SRO Motorsports Group. It is a pro/am championship which followed a formula similar to the FIA GT3 European Championship, which was itself derived from the FIA GT Championship which utilized the GT1 and GT2 classes.
GT4 class cars are mostly what can be referred to as track day cars, which are factory-built race cars available to the public. However, custom-built cars based on production models can also be built by teams. All cars are test driven by the FIA and then modified so that they all have near identical performance levels. Once a car has been approved by the FIA, it cannot be modified by the teams, eliminating continual development costs for constructors. All cars run on regulated Pirelli tires to further equalize performance.