A maiden pole position, another podium finish… and some dissatisfaction

Hexis Racing achieved a brilliant result in the fourth round of the FIA GT1 World Championship. Fred Makowiecki and Stef Dusseldorp scored the team’s maiden pole position in 2012 and took a well-deserved second place in the Championship Race. This puts both drivers and team in the same second place in the provisional standings. But the weekend has been a tough one on track, in the pits and also behind the scene…

The two McLarens had an excellent start to the meeting. They topped the time sheets in the first free practice session, with the #2 car driven by Alvaro Parente and Grégoire Demoustier ahead of Fred Mako and Stef Dusseldorp’s #1 entry. In qualifying, for the first time this season, both Hexis Racing cars managed to get into Q3. The team also gave the McLaren MP4-12C GT3 its maiden FIA GT1 World Championship pole position thanks to a great drive by Fred and Stef.

In Saturday afternoon’s Qualifying race, Alvaro Parente recovered from 6th on the grid to battle with Stef Dusseldorp and the fastest of the Ferraris in the Top 3. Unfortunately, after the driver changes, Greg Demoustier was forced out of the race with engine problems. Fred Makowiecki lost power until the engine died but he could make it to the finish line in 9th place.

The team worked hard until the early hours of Sunday morning and was rewarded with the fastest time in the warm-up session, set by the #1 car. There was a bit of a mixed feeling after the Championship Race: Mechanical problems quickly put Greg Demoustier and Alvaro Parente out of contention for points but the latter set the fastest time in the race. Contrary to his team-mates’ misfortune, Fred Makowiecki was hunting down the Ferrari in P1 until he found a way past in Lap 7 to lead until the pitstop. When he was about to restart, Stef Dusseldorp had to wait for a Porsche to pass down and join its pit before exiting. This cost the Dutch driver dear and he emerged from the pitlane 6 seconds behind Michael Bartels’ BMW. He cut the gap to only 3 to claim a superb second place finish.

”I am happy with the n°1’s result but of course, I’m disappointed for what happened to the other car” said Team-Principal Philippe Dumas. “We are strong and competitive even when we have to face difficulties. We didn’t sleep much since Wednesday and this explains some of the issues we encountered in Slovakia. We’ve had a very difficult week with a lot of problems, not only technical, so let’s rest a little before we explain the situation.”

Hexis Racing remains second in the Teams championship, while Navarra winners Fred and Stef slip down to second in the provisional drivers’ standings. We’ll come back to you soon for more quotes about what happened during the Slovakia event.