Danish Blancpain Endurance Series team Insight Racing came to British Silverstone for round 2 of the endurance championship riding on a high. But the three hour race at iconic Silverstone turned out to be more of a challenge than the Scandinavian racing team had hoped for.
Having recently upgraded the team’s Ferrari 458 Italia, the Insight Racing drivers soon found the Italian car a handful to drive around the world famous Grand Prix track. The mechanics were put to a test on Saturday evening in an attempt to revert the car to the specification and setup used at Monza last time out, where they bagged a fifth place.
The decision paid off immediately. Danish driver duo Martin Jensen and Dennis Andersen soon found the white, blue and red Ferrari to be 1.5 seconds faster per lap.
However, a good start from Dennis Andersen and a position in the midfield soon turned to a nightmare for Insight Racing. A mistake in the pitstop meant that Martin Jensen, having taken over Ferrari #17 had to cruise back to the pits. The following pursuit resulted in a drive through penalty that was changed to a stop and go penalty for reasons yet to be explained to the team.
The result was a disappointing 14th in the pro-am category, four laps down from the winners, the factory backed Aston Martin Racing team with Darren Turner, Fred Makowiecki and Stefan Mücke.
Martin Jensen, driver and Team Manager:
“We decided to revert to the Monza specification, as the upgrades and changes made to the car will take us more time to fully exploit. We managed to gain some positions during our stints, but in this game it is impossible to get a lap back. We drove on the limit, and I received a penalty that Dennis had to serve. When taking the drive through we were told that he had to come in for a stop and go penalty as well, which of course cost us a lot.”
Dennis Andersen, driver:
“The start of the race was ok for my part. We had only tried our race setup in qualifying, so it took some getting used to. But the speed was there as I put the car in the best half of the 57 car grid in the first stint. We certainly hope that now we have had all the bad luck of the season. This championship is very strong and fair, so you can’t afford to have too much bad luck. Luckily it’s still close in the championship, so we are still in the fight for a top five.”
The next race in Blancpain Endurance Series will be at French Paul Ricard on 29-30 June 2013.
Source : Insight Racing