Paul Ricard: Mad-Croc Racing qualifying report

Mad-Croc Racing scores strong fourth place in Paul Ricard in race 1 of the fourth round of the FIA GT1 World Championship

PAUL RICARD -- FRANCE. The fourth round of the FIA GT1 World Championship takes places this weekend at the beautiful and modern site of Paul Ricard in the very hot south of France. Xavier Maassen and Mike Hezemans finished as high as fourth in the first FIA GT1 World Championship race of the weekend, while Pertti Kuismanen and Mika Salo ended up in 19th position. In FIA GT3, the Mad-Croc Racing Ford GT3 of Christoffer Nygaard and Mikko Eskelinen came home in a good 7th, after a good.

The qualifying session of the GT1 World Championship was a very good one for the Mad-Croc Racing Team.

Xavier Maassen and Mike Hezemans set 4th time, the best qualifying result so far for a Mad Croc Racing Corvette. Pertti Kuismanen and Oliver Gavin came home in 20th position.

Race 1

Xavier Maassen and Pertti Kuismanen took the start of the race and young Dutchman Maassen set down a terrific show in the black Mad-Croc Corvette C6.R. He drove an amazing first half of the race and handed over the car in second position to Mike Hezemans.

Xavier Maassen: "I never had such a good car this season, the Mad-Croc Racing Team did a perfect job and I guess that there is little room for improvement in the set-up this weekend. I was able to chase the cars in front of me and overtook the Lamborghini for second; only the race winning Maserati was maybe a fraction quicker than our car. Mike also did a good job, but I think that the tyres were dead by the end of the race.

Our car is more aggressive on the rubber than some other cars, and that's why we lost some places by the end of the race. But I think that we will be very strong in the Championship's race, still having two sets of fresh rubber."

Mike Hezemans: "Xavier is correct, I did everything possible and we did a good job, but the tyres were indeed worn out... I'm sorry that I lost third, because we deserve a podium, that's for sure."

Pertti Kuismanen had a good start as well, but a little mistake dropped him down the order. After a fine race, he and Oliver Gavin still managed to score a top-20 finish.

-source: mad-croc racing