India's Armaan Ebrahim along with his Spanish teammate Miguel Toril finished second in the first race of the Silver Cup class as the pair continued their strong run in the Blancpain FIA GT Series here Sunday.
Driving for Fortec Motorsports, Chennai-born Armaan had two podium finishes in the previous round at Brands Hatch after returning from a high-speed crash in the opening round in Nogaro, France.
Armaan had a difficult start to the weekend as he missed the entire practice session due to a failed water pump belt and went straight into qualifying and put the car in 11th place out of 20-strong grid which included former F1 drivers Giorgio Pantano and Nelson Piquet Jr.
Miguel unfortunately qualified lower down the order in 18th in the second qualifying which was where they started off for Race 1.
With changing weather conditions and the track getting wet after a solid shower, the Fortec pair managed a well earned second place on the podium in their class and 12th overall.
Race 2, however, did not go well for the team.
Armaan, who took the start, made places in Lap 1 and was up to 10th by the end of Lap 2 before the Safety Car came out due to a couple of cars going off.
The fluctuating weather caused Miguel to make two additional pit stops while juggling with slicks and wet tyres. In the process, they lost close to two laps.
"With no practice, it was a blinder going into qualifying as I did not know how the car would react on new tyres and what the limits would be. However, it turned out quite well and I managed a strong 11th place," Armaan said.
"While it was good to be on the podium in Race 1 taking second place in our Class, it was a bit of a disaster in Race 2 with the pit stops."
