FRUSTRATING WEEKEND AT THE NÜRBURGRING FOR TEAM WRT
This past weekend proved to be a challenging one for Team WRT and OQ by Oman Racing, run by Team WRT, at the Ring.
Car #32 engaged in great fights all race long with Sheldon van der Linde, Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts behind the wheel but unfortunately, a contact 30 minutes before the checkered flag led to a broken wishbone and a withdrawal of the car from the race.
#46 also faced difficulties by losing 10 positions at the start after a McLaren spun just in front of it at turn one. The trio, composed of Valentino Rossi, Maxime Martin, and Raffaele Marciello managed to go on to recover to 18th overall. In Bronze class, car #30 driven by Ahmad Al Harthy, Sam De Haan and Jens Klingmann made a good comeback, moving from P13 to P7 in class after a difficult qualifying.
It was not the weekend the team hoped for in the Eifel region, as it arrived as leader of the overall standings (teams and drivers). There are now three weeks to rest and work on the cars to get ready for the penultimate round of the Sprint Cup at Magny-Cours, France.
On a positive note, the Belgian team proudly announced last week that it got awarded the prestigious FIA 3-star environmental certification confirming that Team WRT not only complies with existing environmental regulations, but also continually strives to improve its environmental practices.
Vincent VOSSE, Team Principal BMW M Team WRT: “A frustrating weekend for us. With car #46 we already lost a lot of time due to an incident on lap one. After that, we gave everything we had with car #32. Unfortunately, we were stuck in traffic and the undercut we tried at the pit stop didn’t work out. A few laps before the end we had contact fighting for P8 and had to withdraw the car, which was very painful. Overall, we didn’t have the pace to challenge our opponents for the top positions. We have to analyse that and fight back at Monza!”.
Sam DE HAAN, #30 BMW M4 GT3: “I think there was a possibility to jump positions but it’s hard to overtake here. We got lost in traffic and struggled. Honestly, we didn’t have the pace to fight for our class podium. At least we didn’t do any mistakes on track and on the operational side , I think that’s a positive!”
Sheldon VAN DER LINDE, #32 BMW M4 GT3: “Not the weekend we had hoped for, obviously. We had a good start but got pushed outside in turn one and lost some positions again. We then fought our way back and I had a very enjoyable fight with the Lamborghini. It was very hard but always fair. I think we put on a great show. Following the contact with the Ferrari we had to retire late in the race, unfortunately. Now let’s bounce back at Monza!”
Valentino ROSSI, #46 BMW M4 GT3: “It was a difficult weekend where we struggled a lot with the pace. We tried a lot of things on the settings side, but the problem always remained. We missed some chances to get into the top 10. At the first corner and the start, I had contact with another car and we lost a lot of time. We had to recover but anyway, from behind like this it is difficult, even more without pace”.
Maxime MARTIN, #46 BMW M4 GT3: “It was a difficult weekend. We knew that Nürburgring was not a track that was suited to the BMW M4. In the end, some tracks are good, some others are not. All we can do is analyse and improve for the next time!”