Belgian Racing endured a frustrating seventh round of the GT1 World Championship at Paul Ricard this weekend, as on track collisions took their toll on the team’s distinctive black, red and yellow Ford GT cars.
Vanina Ickx and Christoffer Nygaard finished today’s championship race in 13th position, one lap down on the leaders, after Ickx was forced to pit twice in the first half of the race with two punctures, a result of a collision with the #40 Ford GT of Bas Leinders.
The #10 Ford GT, driven during the first stint by Antoine Leclerc, was also involved in a collision early on in the race and sustained damage to the steering. The Frenchman managed to continue to the pit stop, where he handed the car over to compatriot Yann Clairay, who was eventually forced to retire from the race when the handling of the car deteriorated to the point where it was no longer safe to continue.
Belgian Racing had even less luck in yesterday’s qualifying race, in which both cars were forced to retire after being involved in separate first lap incidents.
It was a disappointing weekend for Team Manager, Laurence Hanssen, who’d seen a significant improvement in the team’s performance during free practice and pre-qualifying. The #9 Ford GT finished both sessions in ninth position and then Nygaard went on to post the sixth fastest time in warm-up this morning.
Vanina Ickx: Ford GT #9
“It’s been a very frustrating weekend. Christoffer showed that we’ve made progress with the car and could now be competitive, but we didn’t get the chance to show that in the two races here at Paul Ricard. In today’s race Bas made a small mistake in the #40 Ford GT and ran wide, but when I went to go past he cut back in and we touched. He was able to continue, but I had to pit to change a wheel after picking up a puncture in the collision. I rejoined the race, but then I had to pit again with another puncture. Our race was pretty much over then and, despite a good stint by Christoffer, we simply weren’t able to make up the time lost in the pits. I hope we have some better luck at the next race in China.”
Yann Clairay: Ford GT #10
“The weekend started well. The car felt pretty good from the start and we were able to run a good pace, but it all started to go wrong with the qualifying race. I managed to get a good start, but I had some contact with one of the Nissans in the first lap and that was the end of my race. Today Antoine drove a pretty good stint, but he was also involved in some contact on the opening lap. When I took over the car after a good pit stop by the team, there was a lot of vibration, which got steadily worse. It got to the point where it was dangerous around the high-speed corners, so I had no option but to retire. It was disappointing, but we’ll bounce back and I hope we can have a good result before the end of the season.”
Laurence Hanssen: Team Manager
“It looked promising during free practice and pre-qualifying. Christoffer and Vanina were well placed in the top ten with Yann and Antoine pretty close to the same pace. Qualifying didn’t go so well for us, so we started the qualifying race from the back of the grid. As we’ve seen so many times this season, the first lap can be incident packed and we were unlucky enough to have both cars involved in separate incidents that put them out of the race. In the Championship race we also suffered more than our fair share of bad luck with Vanina picking up two punctures and Yann being forced to retire because of damage to the car. We need to take the positives from this weekend, the biggest one being that Christoffer has shown here at Paul Ricard that our car can be competitive. I hope that at the next race we’ll get the chance to show this.”
Source : Belgian Racing