First rookie trophy for Daruvala in Eurocup

Daruvala competing as a guest driver, made his debut in Silverstone in Eurocup, where he was involved in a first lap crash in the opening race, which put him on backfoot for the rest of the weekend.

Back-to back rounds meant, Daruvala had little time to ponder on Silvertone and get back to racing in the fifth round at Nurburgring last weekend.

A tight field in the championship saw the Indian finishing 26th and 12th in the two practice sessions topped by Ferdinand Habsburg (Fortec) and Ukyo Sasahara (ART) - in both the sessions, Daruvala finished within a second of table toppers, respectively.

Top rookie honours in race one

Over in qualifying on Saturday, the Mumbaikar finished fifth in his group and was 0.700s off the ultimate polesitter Louis Deletraz.

Thus, Daruvala started ninth in the first race where he got a good start, moving a place up to eighth in the opening lap.

He made further inroads after a gritty battle with MP's Ignazio D'Agosto and took seventh position on lap seven to finish as the top rookie in the race won by Jack Atiken (Koiranen GP) while Sasahara finished second and Matevos Isaakyan (JD Motorsport) third.

Retirement from race two

The Sunday's qualifying saw, Daruvala finishing 12th in his group and started 24th as polesitter Ben Barnicoat (Fortec), from the other group had taken pole position.

It was always going to be difficult starting from the back of the field in the second race which started behind the safety car due to wet conditions.

Effectively his race ended rather quickly as mechanical issues forced him to retire on the very first lap of the race, meaning a second retirement for the Indian in Eurocup series.

His team Fortec, though, enjoyed a 1-2 finish with Barnicoat winning from Martin Kodric as Anthoine Hubert (Tech 1 Racing) completed the podium.

A better outing for Daruvala at Nurburgring; he will be back in Eurocup for the final round at Jerez, skipping the sixth round at Le Mans to fulfill other commitments.