24 Hours of Spa - report
Markus finished 3rd in class in the 24 Hours of Spa last weekend. He shared the Prospeed #161 Porsche GT3 Cup S with Oskar Slingerland, Niki Lanik and David Loix. After a great start of Niki, climbing from 10th all the way to the top, the team was leading the race for a few hours, but were slowed down by several minor technical issues, including a lost side window, broken gear linkage and broken rear upright. They dropped to the back of the pack, but then started a furious comeback, Markus setting the fastest race lap along the way, and were even charging for a class win in the end. However, the time ran out and Markus brought the car home after a great fight on 3rd in class and 12th overall.
"I wanted to win the race and I think we would have deserved it as we were the quickest car out there and the problems we had were not caused by any mistakes by drivers or the team, so I'm not entirely satisfied with the result. However, after the setbacks that cost us some 30 minutes in the pits, we had a great fight to bring it back. We were even able to put some stress on the two teams in front of us and in the end it was extremely close. The car was excellent, team worked well and I think that all the drivers were amazing. We surely were very happy to climb on the podium after the race. We did everything we could, but like so often, you need some luck to win a race like this.
I was very happy with the spirit of everyone involved. Also, it was great to see the rookies, Oskar and Niki, doing so well. Niki showed everyone that he has the necessary speed, but more importantly, he kept it cool and drove a very smart race. Oskar was just excellent on wet keeping us in lead, being quicker than a bunch of highly rated drivers and also had a good night stint - both on very tricky conditions and with just one year of racing under his belt. David was solid and quick as expected and I set regularly lap times that were a few seconds quicker than any other Porsche and actually set the fastest race lap in G3. Well, we gave it all we had!"
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