GT1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP - SAN LUIS

Markus Palttala finished 6th in the final GT1 World Championship race of the season last weekend in Argentina scoring season's best result of Belgian Racing. Palttala received a last-minute call to drive the Ford GT #10 alongside regular driver Antoine Leclerc on the beautiful circuit of Potrero de los Funes in San Luis. Although the Ford GT was not the car to have on the challenging Argentinian circuit, Palttala managed to lead the team to two top 10 results with 6th in the Championship Race and 10th in the Qualifying Race.

Palttala was the highest placed Ford-driver in Q1 from which 14 fastest went to 2nd qualifying. Leclerc was 13th in Q2 and not getting through to Q3, so it was 7th row in the grid for the Qualifying Race. Leclerc took the start and brought the car in on 10th position. A lost wheelnut during the pitstop cost some time and a couple of positions, but Palttala, shadowing the sister-team Marc VDS' star driver Maxime Martin before his retirement, brought the car back into top 10.

The start of the Championship Race on Sunday saw Palttala avoid a massive crash that took out five cars and the Finn found himself 4th after the first corners. He was then overtaken by four cars under Safety Car conditions, two of which later received a drive-through penalty for it, and took the restart after a long SC-period from 8th position. After the restart, Palttala moved to 7th and when the pitwindow opened, Palttala's team opted for a long run for the fast Finn and he was leading the race for a few laps before handing over to Leclerc. The Frenchman returned on track in 7th place after another slightly lengthy stop. Leclerc could not hold back Catsburg's Nissan and dropped to 8th but kept the other Fords at bay. After the #7 Aston Martin and #22 Nissan came in to serve their penalties, Leclerc crossed the finish-line 6th. The other Belgian Racing Ford of Nygaard-Hirschi also achieved their best result of the season finishing 7th.

"It was great to be back in GT1 in possibly the last race of the current GT1 machinery and San Luis has been my favourite track, along with Spa, since I raced there first time in 2008. It was soon clear that all the other cars with more power had an upper hand on the Ford GT but we were in the game and very competitive comparing to the other Fords, which hasn't happened before. Of course, we were a bit lucky to get P6 but it was by far the best performance from Antoine this year and I think the team has had enough misfortune to deserve this positive finish of the long season."

"The start of the championship race was quite crazy. I got a good start off the line but the Aston in front of me braked and I had to lift and let a few cars by. I then managed to gain some back in the first braking and was in 4th alongside the Ford #9. Hirschi didn't leave me a lot of room to Turn 3 and I had to avoid an accident by cutting the corner. Then there were yellow flags and the leading Corvette slowed down way too much causing confusion. It was a bit messy because I saw the yellow flag and the team told me we're under Safety Car but I saw several cars passing me. Anyway, I'm happy we got through it safely, I managed to pull away from Bernoldi and Max after it went green again, Antoine brought it home and we scored a nice result. It could have gone much worse!"

"A full season of GT1 World was originally on my agenda but then some things changed in the team and I was left with only the Blancpain Endurance program. I then signed with Young Driver AMR to substitute for a works driver who was going to miss 2-3 races due to a commitment with Aston Martin's ILMC program. Well, that LMP1 project got canned, so I was left with just two GT1 outings with Belgian Racing when they needed a driver for a race. In Silverstone we got to 8th which was the first top 10 finish for the team and remained their best championship race result until our 6th now in San Luis, so it was good to be involved in the positive moments of this young team."