Portimao: Mad Croc Racing race report

Difficult Portuguese round for the Mad Croc Vettes

PORTIMAO. It has not been an easy weekend for Mad Croc Racing in the Portuguese Algarve during the 7th round of the FIA GT1 World Championship. The #11 Mad Croc Racing Corvette C6.R of Xavier Maassen and French newcomer Julien Jousse was quick throughout the whole weekend, but two difficult pit stops made a good result impossible. A seventh and fourteenth place did not reflect what the drivers were capable of. Pertti Kuismanen and another new French driver, Laurent Cazenave, finished in 17th and 16th after a trouble free weekend.

Qualifying

With an 11th and 15th spot on the starting grid of the qualifying race, feelings were mixed in the Mad Croc Racing team.

Xavier Maassen (11th): "In order to avoid possible starting incidents, it's always better to be more at front, but our position is our position, so we have to deal with it. We will try to make the best out of it and a top-6 is the aim."

Laurent Cazenave (15th): "I'm new to this championship, so I'm happy with my performance, I survived the first session of qualifying and that's ok to me."

Race 1

The performance of Xavier Maassen during the first half of the race was really stunning. The Dutch driver, starting from 11th, put down an impressive series of overtaking manoeuvres and half way the race the black Corvette came into the pitlane in 5th overall, handling over the wheel tot Julien Jousse.

Julien Jousse: "But a problem while changing the tyres dropped us back in 11th and I had to start all over from scratch. I put down the fastest lap of the race, proving the great balance of the car and 7th was the final verdict. We are really disappointed as this should have been a top-5 or even a podium finish."

Laurent Cazenave and Pertti Kuismanen came home in 17th after a regular race.

Race 2

Xavier Maassen: "It's almost impossible, but the same thing happened again... Julien was up into 6th position as he came in and again something went wrong while changing tyres. I couldn't make up the lost places anymore and 14th was the final result..."

Laurent Cazenave and Pertti Kuismanen came home in 16th after a again an trouble free and regular race.

-source: mad croc