Laurens Vanthoor Press Release
In the second race of the Blancpain Endurance Series in Silverstone Laurens Vanthoor finished in a strong third place. Cesar Ramos, Marc Basseng and Vanthoor drove an impressive race in the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 LMS Ultra, rewarded with important championship points, despite a drive-through in the early stages of the race.
Silverstone offered us a typical British racing weekend, with very mixed conditions. It all started on Saturday with heavy rain and two free practice sessions provided little action and even less information for the teams.
Laurens Vanthoor: “In all I did 5 laps, due to the wet weather. As we will have dry conditions tomorrow, with even some sunshine, today was a wasted day. I prefer full action with a lot of driving.”
On Sunday morning, qualifying started under damp conditions, but the track dried up by the end. During the final stages every driver tried to put down a fast lap as late as possible. The team gave Vanthoor a fine opportunity to go for pole-position, but due to an incident a red flag ruined any chances of Vanthoor grabbing the pole.
Laurens Vanthoor: “I received a new set of slicks in order to put down an even better lap time during the session’s last moments. But in those closing stages, just as I was lapping quickly, a car went off and the session was ended 3 minutes too early. I missed the opportunity of doing any better than 9th spot, which is a big disadvantage in this highly competitive competition. Even before the start of the race we knew that we would need to fight hard to have any chance of finishing on the podium.”
It was a difficult start for the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT boys, with an early drive-through. But they never gave up! And in the last metres of the race, Vanthoor took third!
Laurens Vanthoor: “What a fantastic last lap… I found myself in the same position as in Monza where I closed in on the leaders, but this time around I managed to score third instead of fourth! It was very important for all of us and I would like to thank the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT for their marvellous pitstop work! My teammates also did a good job and this result will motivate us to do even better in the near future.”
Photo credit: Belgian Audi Club
