Henrique Chaves finished fifth the second race of the International GT Open’s Hockenheim round, keeping the third position of the Drivers’ Standings.
The Portuguese driver kicked-off the day in a positive fashion, fighting for the pole-position in today’s qualifying. With only one set of new tires, against two of his opponents, he achieved the fourth fastest time, 0,078s from the poletime, a result that gave him good chances of a good result in the race.
Henrique Chaves started well the race, climbing to third after a hard fighting, putting his sight in the second position car.
He was in his opponent clutch, but with no real possibility to launch an attack, he decided to protect his tyres in the middle of his stint. In the end, he upped his pace, again, and signed the fastest lap, until that point. The Portuguese youngster was on the back of the second placed car when he went to the pit-lane to deliver the McLaren 720S GT3 #59 to Martin Kodric.
With a ten second handicap, the Croatian driver was fourth in the end of the driver-change window. Near the end of the race, he was involved in an intense fight for the third position, but in the end he lost a position, after one opponent forced him out of the track, crossing the finish line in fifth.
After the race, Henrique Chaves was pleased with the result, underlining the evolution achieved by the team during the weekend. “We made some set-up changes in the car and today I was much more comfortable. I was able to attack in the qualifying and I was in the fight for the pole-position. In the race, I started well, I was in a hard fight for the third position, but I came better out of it. I was fast, but I couldn’t overtake the second placed car and preferred to protect the tires to attack again in the end. Martin did a good stint, but we lost a position because of the handicap and another after a hard move from another driver. In the end it was a good result in a circuit that wasn’t very good for the McLaren and we scored valuable points for the Drivers’ Standings. It was also important the way we evolved during the weekend, shows that we are in the correct path”, said the Teo Martín Motorsport’s driver.
After his second International GT Open’s weekend, and second in the GT world, the Portuguese driver leaves Hockenheim in a positive frame of mind. “We had a hard weekend start, with set-up problems, but we found solutions and we were again in the fight for the podium positions. We are third in the Drivers’ Standings and our handicap is clean for Spa-Francorchamps, a track that will be better suited to our car. Our opponents are strong, as it was possible to see here, but we will keep fighting to maintain our competitivity”, said Henrique Chavez who, with his teammate, his third in the Drivers’ Standings, eleven points from the leaders.
The next International GT Open round will be held at Spa-Francorchamps at June 8th – 9th.
Source. ComSegue
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