An excellent 4th place in Race 2 concluded the outing of Joel Camathias with the Audi R8 LMS ultra of Team Novadriver at Estoril, in the Swiss’ comeback to the International GT Open. The good result, missing narrowly the podium, came despite the fact that Joel could not do more than 16 laps in free practice and 4 in qualifying with a car he discovered for the first time.

Race 1 started with great promise as Campaniço took the start and was a solid third during his entire stint. Unfortunately, a clutch problem stopped Joel few corners after taking the wheel. On Sunday, the revenge, with Joel starting from last position in the grid, by virtue of a gearbox change after qualifying 2, and climbing up to eighth and César finishing 4th in the tail of the third classified.

Joel Camathias:

“It has been a very interesting experience. I must confess that the Audi R8 LMS ultra surprised me. It’s a very different feeling from anything I have driven before, the car is very good but transmits fewer sensations when you accelerate and brake. It’s a strange feeling you need to get used to. I only did 16 flying laps in practice before Race 1, which unfortunately was very short for me, as the clutch got stuck shortly after I took the wheel. It left me disappointed because we were fighting for podium positions. During my qualifying session, the gearbox eventually broke, which put us last on the grid. Still, a nice race by both César and me, left us at the foot of the podium. A good result and a great experience with a very professional team of nice people such as Novadriver”