At the end of a great race, the duet Badey / Hassid is on the podium again. After their second place in Monza, the two men still finished 3rd in a race that had badly started. They even take advantage of this result to take the lead of the Pro Am championship!
This second Blancpain Endurance Series round took place under a beautiful sun. The BMW Z4 started from the 35th place on the grid after the qualifying session but there were reasons to be hopeful because the performance was there as proved by the 9th overall time at the pre-qualifying session !
Henry Hassid was in charge of the start and he gained places after places at the beginning of his stint. After an impact with another car, however the BMW Z4 dropped to the 55th place. Following a quick intervention of the mechanics, he didn’t give up and was ready for the fight. At the end of his stint, he was back to the 21st place ! In less than an hour, he overtook more than 30 cars !!!
He passed the wheel onto Ludovic Badey who went out of the pits in the 22nd place. The driver from Lyon kept the car around the 20th place. The team decided to delay the pitstop as late as possible. The strategy worked well because Ludovic was 10th ! Fifty minutes before the end of the race, he handed over to Henry Hassid for the last time. He was back on the track at the 19th place and once again, he gained places. He crossed the finishing line in the 14th place overall and 3rd in the Pro Am category (the crew being composed of a professional and a gentleman driver).
Thanks to the consistency of the line-up and the reliability of the car, the team secured a valuable result. Moreover, the TDS Racing team is now leading the Pro Am category. The team did a great performance and showed it was sizing up its new car!
It will be necessary to confirm these good results at home because the next round will take place in France, on the Paul Ricard track, on 30th June
Ludovic Badey : “We fought a lot and we are rewarded. During my stint, I succeeded in narrowing the gap with the other cars. We showed again that we were on our place. We knew we had the performance on one lap but with 60 cars on the track, it is not easy to enter the top 20 in the qualifying session. I am happy with my weekend, we are beginning to understand the car. It is a good omen for the rest of the championship especially because we are leading in Pro Am championship, so it is a good result! “
Henry Hassid : ” The car was well balanced. I had a normal start, I was careful and gained 5/6 places. By overtaking a Mercedes, the driver came and leaned against my car breaking my right rear wheel rim. I had a puncture and I had to go back to the pit which was two kilometres away. I went back on the track in the 55th place after the repairs and I was a little irritated because it was not my fault! I then drove quickly, setting the same lap time as Ludovic, and I gave him the car in the 22nd place after overtaking more than 30 cars! He went on gaining places and for my last stint, I was 4th of the category. The 3rd was 20 seconds ahead, I caught up the Lamborghini and overtook it. The two first cars were out of reach, so we finished 3rd in Pro Am. What is frustrating is that the two first of the category finished less than one minute ahead of us and we lost three minutes between the puncture and the change of wheel. We would have finished in the top 5 overall and first in Pro Am. Third after starting 35th, is a good result even if it could have been better!”
Source : TDS Racing