Promising debut for Tutumlu in Barcelona

Lady Luck wasn’t on Tutumlu’s side during his debut in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup joining Max van Splunteren and Manel Cerqueda. The Spaniard of Kurdish ancestry gained five places on lap 1 but he was caught in a pile-up and it damaged his Lamborghini Huracán GT3. Tutumlu set 9th-fastest time in Q2.

Isaac Tutumlu couldn’t bring a brilliant result home on his Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup debut. Tutumlu, pairing up with Max van Splunteren and Manel Cerqueda, finished 11th in the Pro-Am Cup during the 3-hour race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. On Saturday, the trio of drivers took 4th in Pro-Am and 11th overall in the opening free practice session. Later in the afternoon, Tutumlu and his teammates coped well with wet weather conditions. Finally on Sunday morning the qualifying session took place and Tutumlu excelled in mixed weather conditions. The driver from Barcelona topped the Pro-Am class in Q2 and ranked 9th overall. Tutumlu was in the cockpit for the first stint and, from 21st on the grid, he moved up to 16th at the start. Unfortunately he was caught in a clash losing several places. After, he went off due to split oil on the track but still rejoined. After the stints of Cerqueda and van Splunteren, the Lamborghini took the chequered flag 11th in Pro-Am and 33rd overall.

“My lap in Q2 was awesome because was on slick tires and the track was still drying. I still had room for improvement and with an additional lap I would have make it into the top 3 overall”, said Tutumlu. Spaniard Tutumlu adds: “my race start was good. But still on lap one and racing through the final chicane I made a correction to avoid class with Ferraris of Giancarlo Fisichella and Rinaldi. But the Mercedes driven by Miguel Toril wasn’t aware of me and hit me. I couldn’t avoid collision. I handed a drive through later in the race as a result but in my opinion it was unfair because I was also hit by other cars. Last but not least, there was split oil on the track and marshals didn’t signal it. So, no less than six cars were off. At least I was able to continue. After the first lap incident our Lamborghini was severely damaged and in my opinion it cost us at one second or even something else per lap. The front spoiler was wrecked. Anyway, the championship is amazing and we will work to come back next year.”