Blancpain GT Endurance – David a fine Blancpain Silverstone second

South African Kessel Ferrari 488 GT3 race driver, David Perel delivered his first-ever Blancpain GT Endurance series podium at the second round of the series at Silverstone over the weekend. Capetonian Perel, who had previously won races in other GT series, was delighted at his best result yet in the premier category.

Having spent the whole week preparing at various race tracks, Perel felt confident of a good result in England. “Our priority was to at least finish a race following our Monza disaster, but at the same time we always race to win, which is what we tried to do,” David pointed out.

Things got off to an excellent start with David qualifying the Ferrari on pole position for the second year in a row at the high speed circuit. “My qualifying lap in wasn’t perfect but it still gave me great satisfaction to achieve my second Silverstone pole position on the trot!”

David was then nominated by his team to start the three hour race the first time in his GT career, made a good start to maintain the lead into turn one and pit in an impressive stint to eventually build up a strong 45 second gap over second place. “Pity the safety car came out just before my scheduled pit stop to wipe out our advantage and allow our battle for the win slip away.”

The 888 Kessel Ferrari however soldiered on and by the time the chequered flag fell, it was sitting in second place – a huge result for Perel and teammates, Italian Marco Zanuttini and Belgian Jacques Duyver, compared to big to their misfortune in the opening round. “Valuable points on the board and my first podium in this form of racing,” David concluded. “I’ll take it all, thank you!”

The next round of the Blancpain GT Endurance Championship will take place at the end of June at Circuit Paul Ricard on the French Riviera.