Rounds 1&2 Silverstone GP circuit

The first round of the FIA GT3 European Championship saw Oliver Bryant and his team-mate Maxime Dumarey come away with 2 top 10 finishes (in a field of 46 cars) and they were the 2nd placed Porsche (out of 9) in both races.

Qualifying
Qualifying saw Oliver put the car 7th on the grid for race 1 with a blistering qualifying lap of 1m55.6s. Maxime qualified the car for the 2nd race with an equally quick 1m55.7s lap.

Race 1
At the start of race 1 Maxime, who had never done a rolling start before, lost his grid position and started 20th instead of 7th! In the wet conditions he worked his way up to 11th and handed over to Oliver who changed to slicks due to the drying conditions. Oliver charged through the field setting very quick lap times and making numerous well executed passing manoeuvres on his way up the 6th on the final lap. Into the complex for the last time, the two Vipers that were 4th and 5th but struggling on wet tyres, made contact and Oliver dived up the inside into 4th. Unfortunately, another Porsche followed Oliver through the gap, slamming into the back of Oliver’s Porsche and he was spun out into the gravel. Oliver managed to reverse out of the gravel and finish 9th. A 4th place finish from a 20th place start had been taken away by the actions of another driver! The team protested but no observer’s report had been recorded so despite the TV footage, there was no evidence!

Race 2
Oliver started Race 2 with a dry weather setup on wet tyres on the hope that the track would dry as it did on Saturday’s race. Unfortunately, this did not happen and all three Tech 9 Porsches slipped down the order. Oliver managed to keep the ill-handling Porsche on the track and he handed over to Maxime who brought the car home in a credible 10th place overall and 2nd in the Porsche class.

Oliver would like to thank his Sponsors and Tech 9 for a successful race weekend.