Akhil hopes for a podium at the familiar Paul Ricard track
Bengaluru, 28 May 2021 :The only Indian driver in the 44-car grid for the European GT4 Championship, Akhil Rabindra is hoping for a podium finish at the Circuit Paul Ricard–Le Castellet in France, this weekend from May 28 to 30. The 24-year Indian has bagged a spot at the Aston Martin Racing (AMR) Driver Academy for the third time in a row this year.
Akhil will be driving an Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 with his 19-Year-Old French teammate, Hugo Conde for the AGS Events Racing Team.
This will be the third time that Akhil will be racing at the Circuit Paul Ricard. Prior to this race, he has raced at the French FFSA GT Championship in there previous season where in he along with his teammate Vannelet made a strong comeback finishing P6 in the Pro-Am category and an overall P10 position in Race 2 while finishing P9 in their respective category in Race 1.
However, the 5.8km Circuit Paul Ricard might be familiar for most teams, but the difference from the final race of the 2020 GT4 European Series six months ago could not be bigger. The championship has seen an incredible increase in entries, with 44 cars set to contest the two races on Sunday compared with 18 last November.
In the 2019 European GT4 Championship Akhil alongside his teammate, Florian Thoma managed to finish at P4 but a late penalty put them at overall P15. Later, the duo clocked an impressive time and managed to finish at P5 in the qualifying and P7 in the second race.
“The track has an interesting mix of fast and slow speed corners. The competition will definitely be higher and a lot would depend upon our driving.I am really looking forward to getting back on the racetrack with AGS Events Racing,” stated Akhil post the race weekend.
The season got underway at Monza with a double win for the #23 United Autosports entry of Charlie Fagg and Bailey Voisin and the pair will now try to take McLaren’s first outright win at Circuit Paul Ricard to increase their championship lead. United Autosports will also enter the sister #32 machine for Dean Macdonald and Gus Bowers, currently third in the Silver Cup standings.
Qualifying on Saturday, as well as the two races on Sunday, will be shown live and free of charge on the GT4 European Series website and SRO Motorsport Group’s GT World YouTube channels.
LIVE Streaming Time – (gt4series.com)
29th May 2021:
GT4 European (Qualifying Race) – 15:25 Hrs (IST) Onwards
30th May 2021:
GT4 European (Race 1) – 13:20 Hrs (IST) Onwards
30th May 2021:
GT4 European (Race 2) – 21:05 Hrs (IST) Onward
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.
