Kessel Racing´s Henry Hassid extends lead in COPPA SHELL championship with race win in Jerez
After thrilling race action at the Balaton Park Circuit three weeks ago, the #167 Kessel Racing driver Henry Hassid went on to take home his second race win of the season at the third round of the Ferrari Challenge Europe at Jerez (Spain) this weekend. The Frenchman has now extended his lead in the drivers’ standings before the championships half-way stop in two weeks.
Saturday, 22nd June 2024
For the first race taking place at the 4,423-metre Circuito de Jerez, an early qualifying on Saturday morning decided the starting grid. Henry Hassid qualified the #167 Ferrari 296 Challenge in second place, whilst team-mate Fons Scheltema fought with some issues. He set the 9th fastest time in the #177 Kessel Racing Ferrari and would not see the checkered flag later in the race. From the start, Henry Hassid knew now was the time to put pressure on the #193 of Gostner and after a great battle, he took over the leading position to cross the finishing line in first place with a gap of 4.139 seconds – securing Kessel Racing´s second win of the season in the Ferrari Challenge Europe.
In the first COPPA SHELL AM race, Jan Sandmann started from 6th place on the grid in the #186 car, with team-mate Stephen Earle in the #100 Ferrari from P15. Both drivers had great starts into the race and throughout the 30-minutes continued their charge through the field, eventually finishing in two strong Top-10 results with 4th and 7th place respectively.
Sunday, 23rd June 2024
The second day of the Ferrari Challenge at the Iberian track saw Henry Hassid underlining once again his great performance by taking Pole Position for race #2. The torching heat in the Spanish countryside set temperatures rising to 45° Celsius for the afternoon race. Although Henry Hassid had a good start, fighting off the #151 by Dhillon, he lost a couple of positions on the first lap. Meanwhile, team-mate Fons Scheltema had started from 9th on the grid when he spun before a Safety Car phase due to the incident with Gostner. He rejoined the race however and finished in P11. Just before the end of the race, Henry Hassid was given a drive-through-penalty for over-speeding at the start, resulting in him dropping down to P5. He still took home enough championship points to extend his lead in the standings.
In a good qualifying performance, the #186 driver Jan Sandmann qualified in third position with Stephen Earle placing the #100 in P8. Whilst the German driver Jan Sandmann challenged for the first position, he unfortunately span-out and went into the gravel. The US-driver Stephen Earle held-up the Kessel Racing flag, finishing in 5th place in the #100 Ferrari after already impressing with P7 on Saturday.
Kessel Racing is heading to the prestigious 24-hours of Spa-Francorchamps next week, with the Ferrari Challenge Europe back in action from 4th to 7th July in Portimâo (Spain).
