Pasin Lathouras made a dream debut in International GT Open on Saturday afternoon at Spa-Francorchamps with a hard fought but eventually dominant victory in the 70-minute race. And much more than just that win it turned into a dramatic weekend where young Thai drivers skillfully dominated a major international motorsport event.
The #80 AF Corse Ferrari 458 GT3, which Pasin was sharing with his regular British GT Championship teammate Richard Lyons, stormed to an impressive GTS win after more than an hour of hectic action that was punctuated by pitstops and a Safety Car period. And it was all played out on one of the world’s most famous and challenging racetracks.
This was Pasin’s first race in the pan-European International GT Open Championship (he will also contest the next round later this month at Monza) and without the extra ballast weight that he has to carry in the British GT Championship, the 20-year-old Thai was able to revel in an environment where the car was fully competitive – and all despite being on a track that he hardly knows well.
The victory was Pasin’s first of the year and really puts the icing on the cake of his first season of racing in Europe, which is his first outside of his native Asia and what is really proving to be a big career step forward.
It was also a really exciting weekend for Thai motorsport as two of our other young racing stars of the future, Sandy Stuvik and Tanart Sathienthirakul, were competing in Euro Formula F3. Both were very quick and competitive while the former added two more wins from his two races to move yet another big step closer to winning the championship title. It meant three wins accredited to young Thai drivers at a major international sporting event that took place on one of the world’s most renown racetracks.
Practice
Pasin’s weekend got off to a flying start last Friday morning during the two free practice sessions. Back in the cockpit with Richard the pair took full advantage of the pair of one hour long sessions with Richard banging in times that gave Pasin a clear benchmark and demonstrated that car setup was heading in the right direction.
The #80 car emerged as the fastest GTS car in the FP1 session with a 2:21.771 best lap (177.853 km/h) which was in fact also good enough for P2 overall, just +0.174 seconds off the fastest GT Super entry, the #4 Corvette.
In International GT Open the entry is split into two classes, the GTS class is for GT3 cars, Pasin and Richard run in this class with the #80 Ferrari 458 GT3, while there also is a top class, GT Super, reserved for a more advanced level of machines which is broadly in line with GT2 specifications.
The two drivers also had extra tasks to work through in the practice sessions as the #80 Ferrari was in fact their regular British GT machine which was trucked over for the weekend’s action. Significantly though, it was now without the extra 75 kg it usually carries in British GT and so they had to rebalance the car as well as get it setup to run with a different tyre brand. However, without the extra ballast, Pasin and Richard would be able to run fully competitively for the first time this year and they were relishing the chance to show what they could do.
The story for the #80 car was exactly the same in FP2 where Pasin and Richard’s best time was a 2:21.895 (177.698 km/h) which meant the NaRaYa and Tourism Authority of Thailand-supported entry was once again P1 in GTS and P2 overall, again just over a tenth (+0.144 seconds) off the fastest GT Super entry, this time it was the #6 Corvette on top.
With the regulations requiring at least one tyre from practice to be used during race and with car’s setup still being evolved, AF Corse elected to have the #80 car sit out the first half of the session so in the end Pasin and Richard completed only 12 laps, considerably less than any other cars in the top eight.
Pasin Lathouras: “Practice went very well but we are limited with the amount of tyres we can use over the weekend, so we couldn’t go all out. We had to plan to keep the tyres fresh as we have to use one tyre from practice in the race and as Richard knows the track very well and I have now done two races here in British GT recently, track time was a bit less vital than focusing on getting the right setup. Richard and I had actually a bit more to do as the car is the same car as we use in British GT but now without the extra 75 kg the balance is completely different. We needed to get the best balance with only two new sets of tyres available. Richard did a superb job in setting a pace for me to learn from and in the second session we delayed to go out because we were still finishing setting up the car. And again we didn’t drive too much as we had to save the tyres for the race.”
Qualifying
Saturday’s programme would see qualifying taking place in the morning ahead of Race 1 in the afternoon and that called for a very well managed day for AF Corse. Richard went first in the Q1 session, which was held uncharacteristically early with a 0915 start time.
At that time of day track conditions would be changing quickly – but the key strategy would be to manage the tyres for the race and it would once again see track time being limited. With overnight setup improvements paying off, Richard’s best lap in 2:20.908 (178.943 km/h) would be good enough for P3 in GTS which put the #80 car well in amongst the faster GT Super class cars and in fact they accounted for five spots in the top-eight.
For Q2 Pasin was on fresh tyres for the first time and without timing benchmarks he required a cautious approach with the aim to keep learning the track. He did just that and during his short Q2 he knocked chunks out of his practice times. In the end he set a best time that was good enough for P8 in GTS while the team limited his track time to just one run to conserve the tyres.
It was very rewarding bearing in mind there were also many pro drivers in the session, including Italian Michele Rugolo, a former team mate of Pasin’s during the Merdeka 12 Hours at Sepang last year. It meant the #80 car was well positioned for both races, although the drivers would have work to do to get to the front.
Pasin Lathouras: “I tried my best just to get a quick time, it was my first time going out with complete new sets of tyres so I had to learn how far I can push the car in just one run. I took a little bit too long to learn I guess, but the times I did were around 2 seconds quicker than my best time yesterday so I was happy with the progress I’m making.”
Race 1 & 2
It really turned into a dream International GT Open debut for Pasin in the first race of the weekend. It rained before the race was due to start but by the time the cars formed up the track was drying fast and everyone plumped for slicks. Richard would start the #80 car, driving the first half of the race, which was scheduled to run for 70 minutes.
Tyre management would clearly be the biggest concern for this race and that would see Richard and Pasin aiming to drive as quickly as possible, but to be in a conservative mode to reduce wear rates as much as they could so the race wouldn’t go away from them towards the end of their respective stints.
At the green lights the Irishman was smoothly into Turn 1 to defend his P5 overall track position as well as his P3 in GTS. However Richard ran very wide in the run up to the Bus Stop chicane at the end of the first lap and lost a couple of places. Aiming to conserve his tyres, Richard settled into a fast rhythm while pushing to make up places and he soon squeezed past the #56 AF Corse Ferrari of Italian driver Paolo Ruberti.
By the time the pit window opened, Richard had edged into the podium positions and at the pitstop he handed over to Pasin with the car in P2 in GTS. Significantly, as Pasin returned to the track he got the jump on the sister AF Corse car in P1 and then the Safety Car was deployed after a Corvette went into the barriers on the fast run up the hill. That jumbled the order as the pit window was temporarily closed.
When racing resumed with 24 minutes left on the clock Pasin was in blistering form. With the pit window reopened and a number of cars then completing their delayed stops the Thai was able to reassume P1 in GTS and grab track position advantage by quickly passing several cars that had been in the Safety Car queue, but were in fact 1 lap down on the road.
His strategy over the final stages of the race would be to defend that P1 position from team mate Duncan Cameron in the #54 AF Corse Ferrari who was sitting in P2. However, Pasin was in full control and from a zero gap between the pair of identical 458s after the Safety Car was withdrawn he was able to work this cushion up to 13 seconds over the final 20 minutes of the race.
While Pasin’s focus over the closing laps was clearly to manage tyre wear and to hold onto maximum points in GTS, he was also ahead of all the GT Super cars apart from the much faster #2 Corvette driven by Nicky Pastorelli which nipped past. Although Nicky held the race lead, Pasin also in an impressive P2 overall, was able to maintain the gap at just a few seconds. That’s all despite Nicky being an experienced pro – a former F3000 champion and previous Official F1 Test Driver for the Jordan and Midland teams – while Spa can also be regarded as something of a ‘home’ track for the Dutchman who had the advantage of being in a faster ‘GT Super’ class racecar.
It demonstrated the impressively consistent fast pace that Pasin was able to turn in on one of the toughest and most demanding racetracks in the world and one he’s only just getting to grips with. It’s legendary 7.004 km 20-turn layout is one that the Thai youngster has only seen for the first time this year.
Pasin’s final laps were calmly dispatched as he managed his tyres superbly and steadily chipped out his cushion over the second placed car in GTS. To huge delight from the AF Corse technicians and teammate Richard on the pitwall after 70 minutes of challenging racing, Pasin gunned the #80 Ferrari over the start-finishline to take a stunning debut win.
Both drivers and the team were in buoyant mood ahead of Sunday’s second and final race, although they would be starting from down on the seventh row, meaning there would be a lot of work to do over the 1-hour race. However, in a real reverse of fortunes from the day before an onboard fire extinguisher activated just as the Ferrari was leaving for the grid. It took more than 15 minutes before the car was ready for the race and Pasin thus joined the action 4 laps down. The #80 car was retired at half distance.
Pasin Lathouras: “At the beginning Richard was doing his best to gain positions and saving the tyres at the same time, as the main problem heading into the race was tyre consumption. Richard did a very good drive getting us up to second place just couple laps before the driver change. For sure the driver change wasn’t perfect, we had some delays, but we managed to get our car out before our teammates and just as we got out, the Safety Car came onto the track and so I tried to save the tyres during this time, not pushing too hard. When the Safety Car came in, I managed to pass a couple of cars that were a lap down, and at one point I was also challenging for the overall first position but the GT Super car was much faster so he overtook me and I just tried to keep a constant gap between the two of us and to keep managing the tyres to last to the end of the race. In the second race we had really bad luck, but that’s racing, sometimes these things happen and we have to accept them. I also want to say it was fantastic to be here racing on the same weekend as Sandy and Tanart, they both drove really well and Thailand really dominated the weekend. I hope Sandy can now go on and seal the Euro Formula title. Now Richard and I are looking forward to Donington Park next weekend and we hope to keep our momentum going.”