Belgian Audi Club Press Release
Three top 5 finishes and some regrets in second visit to Slovakia
The weekend had started with some promising performance in qualifying, with Stéphane Ortelli achieving the fastest time in Session 1 and declaring: “I took a lot of pleasure pushing the car, it feels much better than on free practice.” Eventually Ortelli-Vanthoor qualified fourth on the grid, right ahead of Stippler-Jarvis.
On Saturday, the Race 1, the Qualifying race, started under very warm weather, with Vanthoor somehow missing his kick-off and losing four positions, while Jarvis gained one to take fourth in the initial lap. The fight is intense among the top five, but in lap 6, Jarvis suffers a puncture in the first corner and his race ends there, as he cannot complete one entire lap without damage and losing too much time. Vanthoor, with an impressive drive, is back to fourth place, but the car drops to five during the pit stop, made difficult by a broken wheel nut. Despite that, Ortelli performs a great stint and reduces his gap, to secure fifth only 1” from the third.
Laurens Vanthoor was quite disappointed about this sanction: “When I heard that on the radio, I couldn’t believe it. After that, it was difficult to stay focused on the drive. It is so frustrating, we really had the pace this time to compete with the top cars and the Mercedes, we were aiming to the podium…”
The young Belgian was echoed by Oliver Jarvis, who could nurture some regrets at the end of the weekend. “It was really a pity to suffer this puncture in the initial part of Race 1”, commented the Englishman, “as a podium finish was on sight. Unfortunately, the incident not only deprived us of a podium on Saturday, but it impacted on the entire weekend, as it put us on a poor grid position for Sunday. Our pace in Race 2, though, proved that we are competitive and making progress, and that is the positive of the weekend”.
Photo credit: SRO / FIA GT1 World Championship