Henrique Chaves ended the second race of the fifth International GT Open’s round, staged in Silverstone, in sixth after a contact from another driver that spun the Teo Martín Motorsport’s McLaren 720S GT3.
The Portuguese youngster started from fourth, which allowed him to look at the win, as, this time, he had a pit stop handicap of just five seconds.
The Portuguese kept his position, after attacking the driver in front of him, following the top-3. However, with the leader strong pace, his title rival, and the even lower handicaps from cars around him, after the drivers change, Martin Kodric, Henrique Chaves’ teammate, was third.
The McLaren Customer Racing official driver tried to fight for the win with his opponents, but he had to accept that the third place was the best he could get. Though, in the final lap, he would suffer a contact from another driver, which sent him to sixth in the end.
“This isn’t the result that we wanted! The Lamborghinis were very strong at Silverstone and it was almost impossible to fight with them. We could get some more points, but one of our opponents was too optimistic and hit us, and we lost many places. Sometimes, it’s how it goes in racing”, said Henrique Chaves.
Although today’s result was below the expected, the Torres Vedras driver is still in the title hunt, when there is two round and four races to go, even if he lost the standings lead. “Here, at Silverstone, our opponents were stronger than us. We gave our best, but they always had some margin that prevented us from beating. The contact in the end of the race costed us some places, but, on the other hand, we won’t have handicap in the next race, which will allow us to fight for the win. We will fight until the end and, afterwards, we will do the maths”, concluded the Portuguese youngster.
The next International GT Open round will be held at the Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya at September 21st – 22nd.
Source. ComSegue/Photo. The Editor
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