End of the 2015 Blancpain Endurance Series season. The fifth and final round of the year took place on Sunday (September 20th) at the legendary Nurburgring circuit in Germany, and had 55 cars entered.
In the BMW Team in Brasil, the trios Cacá Bueno / Sérgio Jimenez / Felipe Fraga and Valdeno Brito / Átila Abreu / Matheus Stumpf finished the round in 21st (17th in the Pro Cup) and 25th (18th in the Pro), respectively. This was the first season of the Brazilian team in the endurance series. In the Sprint Series, with shorter races, the team is already in its third championship in Europe.
The McLaren 650 S GT3 # 58 of the trio Shane van Gisbergen, Rob Bell, Kevin Estre was the winner in Nurburgring. Already the title of the season was for Katsumasa Chiyo, Wolfgang Reip, Alex Buncombe, of Nissan’s GT Academy Team, which came third in the race with the Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 # 23.
The BMW Team Brasil closes its rookie season in endurance with the best result achieved in the 24 Hours of Spa, where Bueno, Jimenez and Fraga were seventh in Pro Cup.
The focus now turns to the last two rounds of the Sprint Series, where the Brazilian team is the current runner-up among the teams. Abreu e Brito are third in the championship and still have a mathematical chance of the title. They claimed podiums four times: two second places at Brands Hatch (England), a third in Zolder (Bel) and a second in Moscow (Rus). Bueno and Jimenez are 11th in the standings. The next round will take place on October 4th at Misano (Italy).
Quotes
Sérgio Jimenez, BMW Z4 #0
“The qualifying was a mess. It rained in the middle of the practice and we could not put a clean lap. So we were far behind. In the race, I started in 40th position and with the first stop we went to 19th overall. Cacá remained there and, in time to deliver the car to Fraga, was much confusion in the pits because the two cars of the team came together to take advantage of the safety car on track, but we lost a lot of time.”
Átila Abreu, BMW Z4 #77
“We started at the 37th position and Valdeno came well in his stint. We made the first stop, which was good and we won positions, staying in the Top-20. I entered the track and the car performance was good, only some difficulties to overcome, because our engine lack on the straights. At the last stop, as was the Safety Car, several cars entered at the same time in the pits, including the two car of our team. We thought that would be the best strategy, but did not work out. It lacked space for cars in the pits in time to leave and we dropped to 30th. Stumpf also put forward some positions, but it was a pity that this happened, because we could have finished in the Top-12. But it served as a learning experience for the team in the endurance races.”
Matheus Stumpf, BMW Z4 #77
“The race was good. We started well and clean. The car was good and steady, which allowed us to gain positions. But the last stop ended up being a mess and we lost a lot of position. I managed to recover several positions and at this time we were one of the fastest cars on the track.”