| Circuit Jules Tacheny, Mettet (Belgium) — Sunday 15 May, 2016; Albatec Racing began its bid for FIA European Rallycross Championship honours with a dominant performance this weekend, that netted all-bar the outright Euro RX victory. Reigning vice-champion Jérôme Grosset-Janin comfortably won all four Qualifying races and semi-final aboard his Poujoulat-backed Peugeot 208 RX Supercar, to set up a front row start for the final.
Returning to the scene of his and the team’s first International victory in last year’s Euro RX opener, it looked as though the Frenchman would deliver the Dumfries team a repeat performance. Taking the immediate lead in the six lap Final, Jérôme made his compulsory joker on lap five, and rejoined into the tightly bunched field, where he was just unable to retake the position, crossing the line 1.4 seconds adrift of the winner. While Jérôme had a relatively trouble-free run to the Final, his new team-mate, reigning Euro RX champion Tommy Rustad had his share of problems on his first competitive outing with the team. Winning his opening Q1 race on Saturday, and with it the second fastest overall time behind Jérôme, set Tommy up well for an anticipated strong result come Sunday’s Final. However, a slow getaway in Q2 resulted in contact from another car, where he sustained panel damage to his HTB Racing Peugeot 208, and a puncture. He recovered to finish fifth, but crucially his slower race time dropped him down the order, but still comfortably in the vital top 12 qualifying positions. Heading into day two and the morning warm-up, the team made some set-up changes to Tommy’s car, which proved unsuccessful for the following Q3, causing oversteer for the Norwegian and a spin on the penultimate lap. Contact with another car in the Q4 meant his overall race time was compromised, although he recovered to take the race win, and finish seventh overall in the Intermediate standings. Joining his team-mate in SF1, Tommy didn’t get the best start, dropping to sixth off the line. However, a sterling recovery by the experienced racer allowed him to gain three places during the joker lap to finish third, and secure a place on the back row of the Final. Another poor start prevented him from challenging for the win, and despite a determined effort to take two places, he brought his car home in fifth. Albatec returns to Euro RX action for round two which takes place at Hell, Norway over the weekend of 11 & 12 June, where it’s hoped Andy Scott will take the wheel of the team’s third Peugeot 208 RX Supercar. Andy Scott, Team Principal Albatec Racing : “It’s certainly been a weekend of mixed emotions here in Belgium. Saturday started very well, P1 and P2 after the opening qualifying race was the best possible result. To follow that up with three further qualifying race wins and victory in the semi was just reward for all our hard work. We had a few issues to overcome over the weekend, which we’ve done, and the team has worked well together. “Jérôme has driven superbly all weekend, he had great pace across all four qualifying races and the finals, it’s just disappointing for him and for us that we didn’t come away with the result we all deserved, but I think we showed once again that the potential is there. “Tommy drove exceptionally well and considering his relative inexperience in the car was able to win two races, challenge for overall heat wins, and consistently be in a position to qualify for the final. Learning a new car takes time, but he adapted well, so it all bodes well for the remaining races.” Jérôme Grosset-Janin, driver Albatec Racing #74 : “It’s been a good weekend all round and I’m happy to have got some solid points from the opening round. We had good pace all weekend which allowed me to win all my qualifying races and the semi. I’m very happy with all of my race starts, I was matching everyone else, which gave me the confidence to know I had the potential to win. We knew Kevin [Hansen] had good pace and knew it would be tough, he’s a factory driver after all, but we’ve had to do very little to my car this weekend to be as competitive. “We’ve had great team spirit again all weekend, across the mechanics, the engineers, everybody, and with Tommy everything has worked well together too. As a team that’s important for the championship and the coming races.” Tommy Rustad, driver Albatec Racing #24 : “It’s been a difficult weekend with mixed emotions, but overall I’m happy with the points. I won my opening race yesterday and finished second overall to Jérôme, but in the second I didn’t get away well and was hit by another car which caused some damage and a puncture dropping me down the order. The hard kerbs and jumps meant we changed our set-up for warm-up, but that didn’t really work well for today’s Q3 and I spun on the penultimate lap. I pushed hard to finish eighth overall ahead of the final race. I didn’t get a good start in that, and was involved in a start crash, but still managed to win to put me fourth overall and secure a place in the semi-finals. “In the race again I didn’t get the best start, but managed to pick up three places on the joker lap, which gave me the last position for the Final. I tried a few moves to pass but didn’t succeed. I’m still learning the car; the engineers, the mechanics, the entire team has worked hard, and have done a great job with the car. It’s not been easy for our first event, but I think we have a great future with Albatec, and the opportunity to pick up more points, so I’m looking forward to the next race.” |
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