Porsche had a difficult race during the IMSA Monterey Grand Prix, finishing seventh and eighth in a class that the German manufacturer has dominated all year.
The #912 of Laurens Vanthoor and Earl Bamber finished seventh despite a spell in fourth place, while the #911 of Patrick Pilet and Nick Tandy weren't able to keep up with the pace of the rest of the pack and ultimately finished in eighth, last in class. The writing had been on the wall for the championship leaders, as Porsche's pace had already been lacking through practice and qualifying at Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca.
“This simply wasn’t our race,'" said Pilet. "We already noticed in practice that it’d be difficult for us in terms of tyre durability. Still, we tried our best in the race. But even with an immaculate performance from us drivers and a flawless job from the pit crew, we simply couldn’t do more. Now we’re looking ahead. It’ll undoubtedly be better for us at the final round at Road Atlanta.”
The result in California stood in sharp contrast to the result of the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR, when the two Porsche 911 RSRs came in home in a one-two finish.
“At Laguna Seca we experienced the exact opposite of the previous race in Virginia, where we brought home a convincingly one-two result," said Nick Tandy, Pilet's team-mate in the #911. "But that’s how it goes sometimes in the fiercely contested GTLM class.
When one small thing doesn’t work, you’re very quickly thrown back. That’s what happened to us today. I’m not surprised really because Laguna Seca has not been particularly kind to us in the past.”
“That was a tough race for us," added the #912's Earl Bamber. "To be honest, judging from the practice sessions, we’d expected this. Laguna Seca is simply not our favourite racetrack."
Discussion about this post