The Team Russia By Barwell squad contested the fourth round of the European Le Mans Series at Paul Ricard last weekend and, armed with a new BMW Z4 GT3, put in their most competitive showing since the first event at Silverstone in April. The car was right on the pace all weekend, with pro driver Jonny Cocker posting fourth fastest time in GTC class qualifying and the second fastest race lap. Team-mates Leo Machitski and Timur Sardarov were also right in the groove, and the drivers combined pace looked set to deliver a top-six result and potentially challenge for a podium finish. Unfortunately whilst Leo was running in a strong fourth place in the early stages of the 4-hour race, he picked up a puncture and we lost a lap whilst he had to nurse the car back to the pits and then have the tyre changed. With none of our competitors suffering any such misfortunes during the race, we thus put on a good recovery drive to post another points-scoring finish in 10th <image009.jpg>place at the finish.
Jonny was revelling in the handling of the new car during the free practice sessions, and was confident of putting in a strong performance during official qualifying. This he certainly did, and on a track where the 1km long straight really helps the more powerful Ferraris and McLarens he did a great job to qualify a close fourth place, on the way taking the scalps of Ferrari-mounted former F1 drivers, Mika Salo and Jan Magnussen with an excellent 1m57.8s lap.
Leo took the start of the 4-Hour encounter, and confidently held on to fourth spot during the opening skirmishes. He then became involved in a battle with the Ferrari of eventual race winners, Beretta/Markozov/Ladygin, but unfortunately it was during this fight that the Z4 picked up the puncture on lap seven. This not only put us out of contention for a top finish, but instantly dropped us to the back of the field at that stage. Leo pressed on after his pit stop, however, and then handed over to Timur for what would be his first double stint in a race. Sardarov then put in the best performance of his short international GT racing career so far, lapping consistently at a very good pace for a Bronze level driver. Jonny finished the job off superbly, underlining ‘what could have been’ by delivering an incredibly rapid stint, with the team’s BMW Z4 being the fastest car on the circuit at times.
The team can take heart from this very strong performance, and now look forward to the final round of the ELMS Championship, at Estoril in Portugal on October 18/19, where they will be targeting a podium finish once more.