This last weekend on the Monza circuit, in the vicinity of Milan, the inaugural round of the Blancpain Endurance Series took place. This brand new championship, brought about by the successful Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO), is an endurance championship, with as highpoint the 24 Hours of Spa at the end of July. In Monza ALD Automotive/Vita4One Ferrari entered two brand new Ferraris 458 Italia, for Michael Bartels, Frank Kechele and Nico Verdonck in the #1 Ferrari 458 Italia and Paul van Splunteren, Niek Hommerson together with Louis Machiels in the #2 Ferrari 458 Italia.
Halfway through the opening race of the Blancpain Endurance Series in Monza everything was looking bright for ALD Automotive/Vita4One. Both cars had slotted in amongst the top players in the rankings and a podium place, or even better, was in their sights. But to quote a cliché, the prizes are only handed out at the finish.
Nico Verdonck: “After one hour of racing I took over the drive from my German team mate Frank Kechele – who had started out from 10th spot on the grid – and similar to him drove a strong, trouble-free stint. This was a great relief for the entire team seeing the weekend had not kicked off as we had hoped for. The Ferrari 458 Italia is in fact brand new, and during the free practice sessions on Saturday I must admit that we experienced quite a few headaches. Everything took a new turn during the qualifying sessions this morning, as thanks to the hard work put in by the engineers, technicians and drivers the car handled perfectly. Following the qualifying sessions this morning I realised that without experiencing problems we could finish well up in the rankings. However on the grid our confidence disappeared and I realised that nothing great would come of it.”
Nico Verdonck slotted into the top-3 van of the three hour long race and after almost two hours called into the pit lane to had over the wheel to his other German team mate, Michael Bartels, who would be finishing off the last part of the race.
Nico Verdonck: “The cars was still running well, I stopped in front of our pit box but forgot to put the car into neutral, whereby the car wouldn’t start again immediately. In an effort to get the car back into neutral the extinguisher was activated and one can guess the outcome. Once an extinguisher has gone off you are no longer allowed to race and our hopes of a great final placing were dashed. I’m obviously highly disappointed with the outcome of this race, notwithstanding the fact that at the back of my mind I truly appreciate the team as also the car’s progress because if we carry on in this way some great results should come out of it. The team, the drivers, the car; everything has so much potential that together we’ll definitely be clocking up some great scores.”
In the meanwhile the #2 Ferrari 458 Italia of Paul van Splunteren, Niek Hommerson and Louis Machiels crossed the start-finish line in second place after 120 of the 180 minutes of racing. But here also fate moved in. Having started out from 14th place Niek Hommerson drove a brilliant stint and handed over the wheel to Louis Machiels. The intention was for Paul van Splunteren to finish off the race.
Paul van Splunteren: “I came on to the track with cold tyres and slid out somewhat too far coming out of the Ascari chicane, hit a small pothole and damaged the Ferrari’s shock breaker. Our technical crew made a brilliant effort to get the car back out on to the track, but we were unable to achieve anything better than a thirteenth place overall and a sixth place in our class. I’m truly gutted…”
Source : ALD Automotive