Fighting for 2nd place
The last thirty minutes of the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps were lived with bated breath for the Aston Martin team, just a step away from what would have been their first podium in the WEC. After the last Safety Car, called following the Alpine #35 spin, Tom Gamble tried to recover ground from Kamui Kobayashi’s Toyota and Antonio Fuoco’s Ferrari, with both drivers’ attacks skillfully repelled by Kevin Magnussen (who with 2nd place secured BMW’s first one-two finish).
Read more Stellantis-Dongfeng, new joint venture for Europe
Close to the podium
Just two laps from the finish, however, Gamble managed to get the better of Kobayashi, bringing his Aston Martin Valkyrie to 4th place and sharing with Harry Tincknell the best result ever in the history of the British manufacturer in the WEC. An overall positive outcome, but one that does not fully satisfy the Englishman: “In a way it was a bittersweet result because I saw the podium was very close, but sometimes that’s how it goes – he commented to SportsCar365 – nevertheless, a very positive result for the whole team, which has worked hard throughout the project. It’s really nice to see that we are getting closer to the front positions and, looking ahead to Le Mans, getting fourth place is a great confidence boost. It was a crazy race, because at one point we were eleventh and I thought: ‘Ah, it’s not a good day.’ And then a moment later I was in fourth position.”
Read more Bottas in Montreal: “Nice to see that my name is still among the lap record holders”
Only Aston Martin under the checkered flag
‘Bittersweet’ not only for the missed podium but also for the finish not reached by the other Aston Martin #009. The teammate Riberas, in fact, came into contact with Da Costa’s Alpine while trying to overtake the Portuguese driver, ending up against the barriers after losing control of the car: “Obviously, everyone had new tires and we had new Softs, which I knew would be fast at the restart but difficult to manage at the end, which indeed happened – added Gamble – at the first restart I had two GTs in front of me, so I was very far behind the group, and then obviously, arriving at turn 5, I only saw an explosion and thought: ‘Oh my God, someone went off track.’ A really unlucky race for number 009, because they were doing great today, so it was a shame for them. At the next safety car the green flag came out and I took a big risk with the Alpine: I think after that incident I will have to buy lottery tickets, it was crazy. Then I closed in on the three ahead and overtook the Toyota, but I didn’t have enough speed to catch the BMW and Ferrari, a real shame.”
Read more Binotto: “Huge gap on the power units, but we expected it”
