BACK TO GREEN CAME TOO EARLY

7 May 2022

Rain and red flags marked the first half of the second race of the World Endurance Championship at Spa-Francorchamps. Unfortunately, the second red flag period turned to green just too early.

Kuba Smiechowski started the race in the Inter Europol Competition #34 Oreca LMP2 and did his two stints while the sun made place for rain. The first red flag period was caused by the #44 car going off and hitting the tyre wall. When the race was continued under full course yellow, Esteban Guti?rrez took over from Smiechowski. Guti?rrez started his stint behind the safety car. After the restart, he raced well and moved from 9th to 5th under very wet conditions. Then under another full course yellow because of the rain, Alex Brundle took the wheel of the #34. Unfortunately, just out of the pits, Brundle lost the car and hit the tyre wall.

Alex Brundle: ?Massive apologies to the team for losing the car in race conditions. There was a lot of water on the track, and the conditions were bad. Unfortunately, straight out of the pits I did not know where the standing water was, and the car simply rotated when I was between turns 9 and 10. There was not much I could do to save the car from the tyre wall. As the rear of the car was damaged, we could not continue. I have to come back stronger at Le Mans.?

Sascha Fassbender (team manager): ?Unfortunately, it is our second race in WEC we could not finish. The race should not have continued when it did. The team worked hard all week, and we were on the right way. We had a very good strategy and were in 6th place at the time of the accident. The car worked well over the weekend, and all drivers were strong. We could have achieved a good result in this race. Unfortunately, Alex lost the car in the rain. We are now looking forward to the ELMS race in Imola and then Le Mans, where we will attack.?

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