PREMA Racing wraps up tough Spa weekend with P4
PREMA Racing had a tough day at Spa-Francorchamps in the third round of the FIA World Endurance Championship. The Italian squad had a positive start to the day after a solid qualifying performance and fought at the front of the LMP2 class but the 6-Hour of Spa soon became unpredictable with several disruptions and safety-car situations.
Starting from P3, Doriane Pin had a quick getaway and even got the early nod for the lead. Daniil Kvyat followed suit with a perfect run, and Mirko Bortolotti put up a really strong pace once again. Unfortunately, while everything seemed set for a positive finish, a further neutralization led to a safety-car infringement, which resulted in a massive 3-minute stop-and-go penalty. For the #63 Oreca LMP2, it was basically race over, and Kvyat could only nurse the car home in P10.
On the other hand, the #9 car had an impressive run, confirming the improvement seen in the previous round at Portimao. Filip Ugran had a great start, and Andrea Caldarelli continue to gain ground from P6 in qualifying. In the middle part of the race, Bent Viscaal put up a monster stint which, tied to a timely safety car, vaulted Caldarelli into full contention for a podium finish. In the closing stages, the Italian delivered a superb run on older tyres and fought for P3. He eventually had to settle for P4 against a contender on new rubber, but still wrapped up a solid day which is hopefully anticipating good things for Le Mans.
#9 ANDREA CALDARELLI
"Good points and the best result so far for car number 9 this year, that's definitely the positive part. We knew that the strategy was going to be tight at the end. I tried to defend as much as possible in the last couple of laps, but we didn't really have the pace at the end of a double stint on tyres while the other car had fresh tyres. I tried a final attack at Les Combes to get the position back but it didn't work. It's a bit of a bitter situation, we had a solid race and didn't make many mistakes, we lost and gained time at the pit stops, chose a different strategy compared to the others and in the end, it was quite a positive result."
#9 FILIP UGRAN
"A very solid performance for the number 9. I'm really happy with the car I had today, obviously it's tough to lose the podium so late. I think we had the pace all day, but we were slightly unlucky in that circumstance. Now let's go for Le Mans!"
#9 BENT VISCAAL
"I'm quite happy with how it went. We got the safety cars at the right moment. Apart from that, I think the team did a really good job in all the calls that we made. I'm very happy about my own performance, I did the best I could to triple stint the tyres. At the end, it was challenging but I think we made the best out of it. I'm really happy with the performance although in the last five minutes it's always a shame that you lose a podium position. I really want to thank the team, now on to Le Mans!"
#63 MIRKO BORTOLOTTI
“I think it was a promising race, we looked quite well since the very first stages, and we surely had the potential to fight for the podium at least. Unfortunately, we were caught with an unlucky safety-car timing entering the pit lane and got a penalty that basically ended our race. We will reset and start working for the biggest event of the year, Le Mans. I’m really looking forward to going back there after my first race in 2022.”
#63 DANIIL KVYAT
"We were in the mix again and faced a bit of unlucky timing, but we win and lose as a team. We need to take a cold shower tonight and think about the next race, which is a big one, Le Mans. Full focus on that, a lot of lessons learned, we keep getting better as a team, we keep working hard together. We cannot let things like these bring us down, and definitely, we will not. We will reset from tomorrow and look forward to Le Mans."
#63 DORIANE PIN
"It was a pretty solid run for me today. The conditions were tricky and challenging at the beginning. I had some fun overtaking the United Motorsports car at one point and was fighting with platinum drivers. The very good pace is another positive point of the day."