Not every race weekend looks the same. In a period of one week Laurens Vanthoor experienced a very unexpected and strong weekend, while the second one was rather disappointing. In Zolder, on home turf, Laurens Vanthoor scored two strong second places in the Italian Superstars Series, while driving an Audi S5 of Audi Italia. Together with WRT Audi, the third weekend of the Blancpain Endurance Series in Paul Ricard turned out to be not the weekend Laurens Vanthoor had hoped for.

With 60 cars on the track, overtaking back markers is not an easy thing to do, certainly not if you want to stay out of any possible trouble. Laurens Vanthoor is now well experienced in endurance racing and knows that overtaking can cause both incidents and a loss of time. In Paul Ricard, he did what he had to do, stayed out of trouble… but still received a penalty.

Laurens Vanthoor: “We qualified out of the top 10 and we knew that, in order to achieve a good result, our race would have to be aggressive. And that’s what Stephane did right from the start. I took over the wheel and was working my way up to an almost certain top 5. Right before the end of my stint, I ran into a group of back markers and for one of them, I really had to go very wide to avoid contact. The race direction decided that I had made up time by doing so, and the result was a drive- through. We lost some precious time and even if we did everything we possibly could, the result in Paul Ricard was a 9th position, good for just some points in the championship. I’m really disappointed and feel sorry for my teammates and WRT Audi. Luckily we are still in a good position in the championship and with more points to be earned in Spa and at the Nürburgring than in the 3 opening races of the season, everything is still open and possible.”

Just one week earlier Laurens Vanthoor did a perfect job for Audi Italia in the Italian based Superstar Series at Zolder.

Laurens Vanthoor: “I loved the cars, really powerful machines, and I was fast straightaway. I had some bad luck during qualifying, with a technical problem, but in both races I finished second, behind my teammate Gianni Morbidelli. In the second race, the team asked me to wait for him in order to let him score full points for the championship, something I did. Racing for a magnificent brand such as Audi means that you have to think as a team, not purely as an individual. That’s why I have no problem at all to help a team mate, certainly not seeing he is doing the entire series, and I’m just a one-off guest.”

Laurens Vanthoor will now be travelling to Zandvoort for round 3 of the FIA GT Series.

Source : Laurens Vanthoor