Ben Keating says he was happy to claim victory in the Six Hours of Bahrain on Saturday, but felt there was room for improvement in his qualifying performance after having to come up from sixth on the grid in order to win the race.
Keating, Dylan Pereira and Felipe Fraga recorded their first win of the season and snapped Ferrari’s runs of four consecutive victories in GTE Am.
The Texan gentleman driver rebounded to win after what he felt was a disappointing qualifying, in which he started in the midfield but quickly made his way up the running order and challenged for the victory.
“I need to do a better job of qualifying for the eight hour race,” Keating reflected to MotorsportWeek.com. “Starting sixth, I didn’t do myself any favors this morning.”
Despite the hiccup, the bright blue Aston Martin proved quick from the early stages of the race and the Texan quickly came into contention for the victory. Within the first ten laps, he had passed fellow Aston Martin bronze driver Paul Dalla Lana to move up to third.
In the second hour, he was able to move into first in class when Tomonobu Fujii handed the #777 D’Station Racing Aston Martin over to Satoshi Hoshino and the #54 AF Corse Ferrari was taken over by Thomas Flohr and the Texan was able to pass both drivers.
“I was fairly delighted that I was able to get up to the lead. I didn’t expect it to pan out that way. I expected most of the bronze drivers to get out after the first stint. I expected to take the majority of the first stint to try to work my way up front, which it did.
“But even at the end of my first stint, I was not in front. I think I was running in third. But then the bronzes got into those two cars that were in front of me, and I was able to work my way to the lead in the middle of my second stint.”
“I was expecting the pros to come from behind and I was delighted with the fact that I was able to build enough [of a] gap and that I was able to do to my drive time, get it done early and provide an advantage to my co-drivers.”
With the win, Keating has now taken victory in two out of three races he has contested in Bahrain. In 2019, he took a class win with Team Project 1 alongside Larry ten Voorde and long time co-driver Jeroen Bleekemolen.
“I don’t particularly love how hard you have to work to do a quick lap around here,” Keating joked when asked about his love for the Sakhir venue. “But I think most drivers love the tracks that love them and I have been quick here. Clearly, I have to love that we’re coming to race here at a track that I know I can perform well at.
“Particularly this year, with Fuji being canceled, I have to be excited about the fact that we’re doing two races here. A third of our season will be at this track. And so that’s good.”
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