The second round of the World Endurance Championship, which started at 22:30 Moscow Time, brought 4th and 5th places to the Russian SMP Racing team. The WEC racing weekend started on Friday, May 2nd, with free practice sessions followed by the evening’s qualifying. The SMP Racing team was traditionally presented by two LMP2 race cars number 27 and 37 driven by the following trios of pilots — Sergey Zlobin, Maurizio Mediani, Nicolas Minassian; and Kirill Ladygin, Viktor Shaitar, Anton Ladygin.
The track in Belgium has a lot of character and springs many surprises. During the free practice sessions, in a series of corners, which start with the tricky Eau Rouge, the car number 37 in hands of Viktor Shaitar, who was actively improving his position at that time, went off the track at a very high speed. It all went well for the pilot; however, the car was seriously damaged and it could not take part in evening’s qualifying. Eventually, the trio of Kirill Ladygin, Viktor Shaitar, and Anton Ladygin had to start the race from the back of the grid. Car number 27 had successful practice session and then later took part in a keen struggle for pole position in qualifying. However, closer to the end of qualifying they had to let pass several LMP1 cars. Being only one thousandth of a second behind, the trio of Sergey Zlobin, Maurizio Mediani, and Nicolas Minassian earned second starting position in their class.
Six-hour competition at the Spa-Francorchamps track is a serious challenge both for drivers and cars.
“The race was held in rather difficult conditions. After the Friday’s incident with the damaged car number 37, mechanics have done a great job repairing it, finishing the work only by 6 a.m. The car was clean and fresh, however, there was absolutely no time left for any fine adjustments. Nevertheless, after six hours of toughest competition, our pilots brought the car number 37 to the fourth position. They have done a great job! On the other hand, our crew received a disputable Stop&Go penalty for false start, which we couldn’t spot even after a very thorough examination. Nonetheless, Nicolas Minassian stayed true to the racing ethics and served the penalty. We were fifth to cross the finish line. Overall, the major problem right now is that we are in short supply of tyres; we lose up to 1.5–2 seconds per lap! That’s a disaster! It happens in slow corners where there’s no downforce actually. And the problem is not about the tyre compound, it’s about its construction. But quite soon Michelin will have its new tyres homologated and the situation should change drastically — our competitors wearing Dunlop at the Le Mans competition would cry bitter tears! We have made a thorough and detailed analysis after the race and defined the amount of work to be done in the nearest future. However, it’s obvious now that even under such conditions we are able to hang on to leading pack due to our qualification”, SMP Racing Sport Director Sergey Zlobin commented on the results of the race.
