Advait Deodhar still in contention for top-3 finish after Hockenheim round

Hockenheim, 23 Sept. 2019: Indian racing driver Advait Deodhar is still in contention for top-3 finish in the 2019 Euro Nascar Championship despite his race-weekend ending on unexpected lines here at the Hockenheim ring for the penultimate round on Sunday.

In Race 1, Advait bent his steering arm after an unavoidable crash in front of him as too was forced to collide with another two cars and ended up 10th. In Race 2, he bagan 10th but could onoy manage a P7.

In Race 1, after a fantastic start, Advait was caught in an accident at the exit of the first corner; with no way to avoid the crash that took place in front of him. Then, he collided with Vittorio Ghirelli’s and Andre Castro’s cars. It was a bit of bad luck, but then he was lucky enough to have been able to continue albeit with a bent steering arm. After dropping down to 22nd, the Indian managed to fight his way back up and finished a commendable 10th despite the bent steering arm.

Earlier, with a quick lap in the early bit of qualifying he made it into Superpole (top 12 shootout, similar to Q3 in F1) but beyond that he only managed to qualify 7th. After looking at the data, he is quite convinced that he could have put in a lap that was much better and possibly qualified in the top 4, but alas that did not happen.

In Race 2,  starting 10th, Advait was focussed to finish in the top 5. “The car felt good in the warm up that morning and we definitely had the pace. However, 2 safety cars and an intense battle with Championship contender Nicholas Risitano kept me at a steady P7,” he quipped.

“It could have definitely been a better weekend, but I’m glad to have been able to limit the damage to my Championship standing and still be in contention for P3 in the season, with an outside chance for P1 or P2,” he concluded.

The final round in Zolder is October 6 and Advait is making all efforts to finish the 2019 European Nascar Championship in top-3.