REPORT: 12h Spa-Francorchamps

24 april 2024

Haas RT

Our report as the race in the Ardennes comes to an end

Reports

The first appearance for the #1 comes to an end after the 12h Spa-Francorchamps. Grégory Servais, Xavier Knauf and Tim Müller took the wheel of our Audi in a tricky weekend that had enough different types of weather to make you believe it was held over 4 seasons!

A tricky qualifying session in changing conditions left us P3 on the start grid. This included a mega effort by Grégory to go faster than everyone by over 1,5s in Q1, while only having 2 flying laps!

With the race getting underway in tricky conditions, Tim made the best of it to keep the car on the track in a good position. However, the unfortunate timing of Code 60s, as well as a problem during refuelling lost us some time. This meant the objective was to end Part 1 with as little distance as possible between to the leaders. We took the flag in P9, a single lap down on the leading car.

Tim took the start again for Part 2, where luck didn't seem to be on our side after he was tapped into a spin. From this point on our fortunes started to change. Taking strategic advantage of the following Code 60s, combined with swift work by the mechanics, and the drivers keeping a cool head in the changeable conditions, meant that we were back in the lead fight with just over 2,5 hours to go. In the end, P2 was as far as we would get, after Code 60 problems would strike us again.

"That was unbelievable," said Grégory after the race. "Yesterday we thought we lost the race... and then there were 2 options: we give up or we fight all day long and that's what we did! Congratulations to my teammates and the entire team at Haas RT. They've done an incredible job to give us a rocket car today!"

Xavier echoed similar comments: "Perfect teamwork! The best team in the world!"

"This is one of the biggest surprises I could not have imagined!" said a very happy Tim. "We were so far back and frustrated, but it's a 12-hour race and so much can happen [with tyres and strategy], but the team was so cool and the car was so good to drive [in both wet and dry]. This is really a great job [by the team] and I love my guys here [Grégory and Xavier]!"