India’s Gautam Singhania wrapped up his debut season in the Ferrari Challenge with a fourth place finish in the weekend’s headline event - the World Finals of the Copa Shell category. The one-off event featured all participants who competed in the APAC, Europe and North American leg of the Copa Shell championships, and was won by Italy’s Erich Prinoth.
Singhania, Chairman & Managing Director, Raymond Ltd started the race on the front row in second position but had an incident with German driver Thomas Lofflad, when the latter was trying to pass him in the first corner.
Singhania was given a drive-thru penalty for the incident, in which Lofflad after being pushed off tangled with race leader at that time Jacques Duyber taking both out of the race. The Indian slipped from second position to 21st after serving the penalty.
Singhania then set out on a chase and pulled off impressive moves to surge ahead and managed to get up to 13th place by the eighth lap. The 50-year old Indian was comfortably the fastest man on the track in the closing stages lapping the track lapping nearly two seconds faster than the rest and kept moving and managed to snatch fourth place on the last lap.
Speaking after the race, Singhania said, “It was extremely unfortunate to have the drive-thru penalty but I just put my head down and focussed, and kept pushing until the last lap.”
After 10 podiums that included in a win in his debut season, the textile-businessman felt pleased with his performances. “I had 10 podiums which is a record for the Ferrari Challenge for a debutant and finished second in the championship which is heartening.”
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