Parth Ghorpade completes 2011 Renault F4 season with points finish

  • Nov 7, 2011
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At the final race of the 2011 Renault F4 Championship at the legendary Paul Ricard circuit in France, 18 year old Indian driver Parth Ghorpade crossed the chequered flag in 7th place, ending his first ever European tour in a single seater racing series with decent results despite several setbacks that plagued his overall performance potential all through the French Championship

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Coming into a very competitive international motorsports arena with limited exposure and overall track time as compared to his European racing counterparts, Indian karting prodigy Parth Ghorpade kept his foot firmly on the race car pedal as he completed the 7th and final race of the 2011 Renault F4 Season with a strong points scoring P7 in Race 2.

Just like in the previous round of the Championship at Circuit d'Albi, Parth was once plagued by technical difficulties in the qualifying session of the final round of the championship. In this case, it was a bad rear wing setting that soiled Parth’s attempt at securing a commanding position on the starting grid for Race 2, and he eventually had to settle for P18 on a 21 car line up.

Despite his hard luck in the qualifying session, Parth managed to get a good start at the very outset of Race 2, and quickly powered his way through the pack ahead and after overtaking 11 of his better placed competitors in the course of Race 2, Parth finally passed the chequered flag in seventh place, achieving his fourth points finish in the season.

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In his scintillating performance in the final race of the exciting season, Parth also managed to set the 4 fastest race lap which was less than 2/10 of a second off championship leader Vaxivierre and quicker than experienced guest driver Sebastien Ogier, a former JWRC champion who tests often in the F4 car at Le Mans.

Commenting on the weekend, Parth had this to say; “I have mixed feelings about this weekend. There is satisfaction in finishing the season with a strong performance, but in reality I had the pace for a top 5 qualifying position which would have given me a chance to go for a podium finish. However, it is good to finish the season with a top 4 race pace in a very competitive grid, even though the preparations for this race weekend were far from ideal. I look forward now to going to Austria for the FIA Young Driver Academy selection in mid November. I would also like to thank my sponsors Amaron and Karvy for their support this season.” 

Ending his debut year as a European F4 racing driver in 15th place with a total of 13 accumulated points to his name, Parth may not have had the most illustrious of starts as an international racing driver, but with the FIA Young Drive Academy selection now on his agenda, the Indian national karting champ may just find his groove at an internationally reputed amateur driver selection competition, where winning really matters.

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