Following on from an exceptional 2011 season Maxime Martin has set off on a new campaign, covering numerous programmes, this last weekend on the German Oschersleben circuit. Part and parcel of the official Alpina structure, he was at the wheel of a fearsome B6 GT3, a car that had clinched the German national title last year, and he was teamed up with the Frenchman Français Dino Lunardi. And the least one can say or write is the fact that this new challenge was both beneficial and spectacular. Pole position, victory in the first round and leadership in the championship; Maxime Martin re-awoke all those who might have forgotten about him in the ADAC GT Masters, in an incredibly high level of competition …
“All in all a super weekend, the young Belgian commented. And in all honesty I don’t believe it would have been possible to do better than that. This Sunday, during the second heat, I set off from pole position holding the lead for the first fifteen minutes. Then a Porsche, followed by a Mercedes, overtook me and I was back in 3rd place when handing over the drive to Lunardi. He succumbed to a Corvette, and we finally grabbed 4th place. A pretty good result when you take into account the fact we were carrying no less than… … 100 kilos of ballast in our car!”
It should be stated that the Alpina B6 GT3 inherited 10 kilos of ballast thanks to the Balance of Performance so dear to the FIA. Seeing the team comprised of Maxime and Dino is made up of Platinium and Gold, an additional 60 kilos were added to the ballast. If you then add a further 30 kilos as the result of Saturday’s victory, you soon arrive at a punishing amount of additional weight. ” And on top of that, had we won today, we would have been obliged to carry 120 kilos of ballast at the next meeting, Maxime continued. We’ll finally be losing 10, still leaving us with a surplus of 90 kilos as compared to the car’s initial weight. Under these conditions the tyres and brakes do suffer, which was the case here at Oschersleben and might be even more so in Zandvoort, for our next meeting at the beginning of May. On the other hand, in Dino Lunardi, I have met a teammate who is both as fast as he is charming. And seeing our engineer also speaks French communication could not be better. We’re leaving Oschersleben as leaders in the championship, so it’s mission accomplished!”
In a fortnight’s time Maxime Martin will be back with the Marc VDS Racing team and the BMW Z4 GT3 on the Monza circuit, for the first round of the highly awaited Blancpain Endurance Series. “Competition will be fierce, with lots of Pro teams, and on this rectilinear Italian circuit the BMW power unit probably won’t have the advantage. The objective therefore will be to achieve the best possible result, going out from the principle that we’re quite clearly going all out for the title. I can’t wait to be back in such a highly competitive context … »
Source : Maxime Martin