Markus Palttala, Henri Moser and Nicky Catsburg finished 5th in the 2nd round of the Blancpain Endurance Series in Silverstone, UK, despite having suffered a drive through penalty during the 1st hour of the 3 hour race. The Marc VDS BMW Z4 #4 trio started from 22nd on the grid of 57 cars but all drivers showed great pace fighting to top 5 to score valuable championship points.
”It was a very good race for us. Henri did a great opening stint taking us from 22nd to 11th. He then had to serve a penalty for passing under yellow flags and that cost us about a minute or so, but Nicky got us back to top 10 by the end of his stint. Both pitstops were perfect and I got up to 5th and started chasing the Ferrari of Zampieri running 4th. I caught him a few laps before the end but he kept pushing me off which was a bit over the limit, but I finally got him on the last lap. Unfortunately, by then the JRM Nissan that I was earlier pulling away from had caught with us, dive-bombed me and I dropped back to 5th. Anyway, it was good to finally score some decent points and it was a nice reward for the #4 crew who have been working hard for months. I did the 2nd fastest race lap and both Henri and Nicky were real quick, so the pace is there. The penalty cost us a podium this time but we’ll continue pushing hard to get up there in the coming races.”
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Markus Palttala, Bas Leinders, Henri Moser and Richard Göransson were forced to retire when Leinders suffered a heavy crash with a slower car some 7 hours before the end of the race. Until the unfortunate accident, the BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS Z4 #26 was having a strong race and running currently on 3rd position. The sister car of Maxime Martin, Yelmer Buurman and Andrea Piccini joined by Göransson finished a superb 2nd, saving the day for Marc VDS and BMW Motorsport.
”The Nordschleife is always dangerous and even more so in such tricky conditions we had this weekend. Bas’ accident was a real shame as we were running in top 3 and our pace was very good both on wet and dry. We were ahead of the #25, which eventually finished 2nd, so there was more than a good chance to get on the podium. Well, that didn’t happen, but I’m really satisfied with how competitive we were and I’m real proud of the entire Marc VDS team. It has been great for us to act as an official BMW works team and I’d like to thank BMW for their support and confidence in us. Personally, I will go home empty handed, being the quickest BMW driver in qualifying the only small consolidation, but we all were cheering for #25 when Max got from 4th to 2nd during the last hour.”
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Markus Palttala, Henri Moser and Richard Göransson finished 12th in the 2nd VLN race of the season. Having raced at Monza when VLN took off, this was the only opportunity for Marc VDS Racing Team to prepare for one of the highlights of this season, the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, and the team decided to run 3 cars in order to collect as much information as possible.
”It was great to finally get to race on the Nordschleife after the long winter. Chances to prepare for the big one were limited to this one-day event, so we really approached it as a test. All 3 cars were on different set-ups, strategies and even tyres, to make sure we learn as much as possible. The race started wet, went to damp and then dried up, so we got to run in all conditions. We struggled a bit on wet in these cold conditions, as we were unable to put temperature on the tyres. For the rest, the car ran well and it’s just awesome to push around this magnificent circuit in a BMW Z4. We finished 12th in the #26 car and ahead of the two other VDS cars, so it was a job well done. We’ll next do a 24h simulation at Magny-Cours and will be ready for the 24 Hours.”
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Markus Palttala finished 36th in the opening round of the expanding Blancpain Endurance Series in Monza, Italy. The Marc VDS BMW Z4 nr.4 driven by Markus, Henri Moser and Nicky Catsburg was running as high as 6th, highest of the BMWs, when failing brakes forced Catsburg to pull in for repairs and the race was practically over.
”To be frank, we made a miscalculation that lead to this result which is a disaster for everyone involved. Nevertheless, the season has only just started and our pace in the race was very positive. We had some trouble prior to qualifying and hence started only 27th but we had already climbed to 6th and were closing in on the eventual podium scorers. We knew it’s going to be tough here as this circuit really doesn’t suit the BMW, so it was nice we were so competitive. I enjoyed my own stint having good fights and passing a bunch of cars while moving into top 10 and up to 6th. I’m also really happy with our driver line-up and the entire car #4 crew. We’re the underdogs, but we work well together and there’s loads of potential, so I’m sure we’ll be on the podium soon. Having said that, the BES is tougher than ever with 60 GT3 cars going for it and it’s not just quantity, but the level of teams and drivers is real high, so you really need to get everything right to score well.”
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