Oschersleben: Marc VDS Racing weekend summary

Leinders-Kuppens 6th with the Ford GT!

Bas Leinders en Renaud Kuppens managed to drive their Ford GT of the Marc VDS Racing Team to 6th place in the third round of the FIA-GT championship, held on the German track of Oschersleben.

Leinders and Kuppens' result was outstanding. The two Belgian drivers drove their Ford GT of the Marc VDS Racing Team to 6th overall and 1st in the category for the cars that are built according to the 2010 rules, cars which have the reputation to be a bit less performant than the current batch of GT1-cars.

"This is an excellent result", Bas Leinders cheered at the finish. "The start was given on a dry track and I immediately gained a spot to 7th. Then the rain started to fall, but at the end of my first stint I managed to match the lap times of the leading cars, on a very treacherous track. Renaud took over, drove his whole stint in the rain, and then gave the car back to me, to successfully defend our 6th place to Thomas Mutsch, who closed the gap quickly. At the end of the race I managed to close the gap to the Corvette of Xavier Maassen in 5th, but a backmarker made me lose some time, so I could no longer attack Maassen's position. Whatever, a place in the top-6 is really exceptional. We are the first 2010-car and, even more important, the car proved to be completely reliable. And we managed drive a faultless race, which was not easy in these difficult conditions. We are ready for Spa!"

During qualifying Kuppens en Leinders drove to 8th overall, as the quickest of the 2010-cars. "The car was understeering all the time, which made us lose half a second a lap. We could have had a top-6 grid position, but our time was encouraging nevertheless", Leinders said before the start of the race.

The Marc VDS Racing Team can now completely focus on the 4th round of the championship, the Spa 24 Hours (25th and 26th of July). During the highlight of the season, Bas Leinders and Renaud Kuppens will be accompanied by Eric De Doncker.

-credit: marc vds