Double podium for Parth Ghorpade at Round 3 of Formula Pilota China in Ordos

Continuing his good performance so far,Parth got his first double podium of the season at Rd 3 of the Formula Pilota China series held at the Ordos International Circuit on the 17th / 18th August. He finished 3rd and 2nd overall in Race 2 and Race 3, which also gave him 1st and 2nd in the Asian class.

For the first time in the series he had a trouble free run in the untimed free practices and closed out the official free practice in P3 . However qualifying went against the run of play due to a combination of traffic and set up , and he put in 2 dentical laps in both qualifying sessions which were almost a second off his free practice pace and saw him lineup P6 and P5 for race 1 and 3. For the race he would revert to the original settings.

Race 1 saw him move upto P4 on the first lap and closing in fast on the Japanese driver , Shota Kiyohara . Unfortunately just as he got to within striking distance he had a recurrence of a soft brake pedal problem that cropped up in practice earlier. It caused him to go off track at C4 on lap 5 and lose 2 positions . He made up ground quickly but had to drive conservatively after having 2 more recurrences of the same problem that saw him lose a floor board and with it the handling. Under the circumstances finishing P6 was creditable damage control. Fortunately he set the 3rd fastest race lap earlier which would be his starting slot for Race 2. The team changed the problematic brake system overnight, allowing him to start next morning with a fresh mindset.

Race 2 witnessed a dominant performance from the Eurasia team which had their first podium lock out in a long time. Parth finished the short 8 lap race in P3 as the 3 teammates finished together well ahead of the rest of the pack with a race pace that was a second faster than the closest rival . With his pace back, the outlook for Race 3 was good even though he would start from P5.

In Race 3 Parth once again had a lightning start that saw him move up to P4 at C1, and then rounded off the first lap with a clean move on his team mate Antonio at the final corner. He crossed the start finish line in P3 with Antonio, the fastest driver all weekend, trying to recover the position, but once he defended successfully into C1, he was able to pull away gradually to establish a comfortable margin halfway through the 14 lap race. He was running at the same pace as the lead duo who were able to pull away initially on fresher tyres and P3 was safe. This became P2 when teammate Sean had an engine problem with 4 laps to go, which would be his finishing position.

This was a big result for Parth given his poor starting positions on a circuit where overtaking is not easy. A triple podium was possible but for his problems in Race 1. However it was a strong performance through the weekend and showed he had the mental strength to turn around a difficult situation and the credit also goes to Race Engineers Mario and Francesco for their support and expertise which helped him do this.