05/05/2009

Platinum Westbrooks Golden Start

British Porsche star Richard Westbrook kicked off his 2009 FIA GT Championship campaign in perfect style with a win in the famous Tourist Trophy race at Silverstone.

The Londoner, sharing with Emmanuel Collard, rocketed his ProSpeed Competition Porsche 997 GT3-RSR through the field from a qualifying position of seventh to score a victory the team never dreamed was possible.

“Our expectations were really low after qualifying,” said two-time Porsche Supercup champion Westbrook. “We were hoping we might sneak a podium, but it was a really fantastic race and the team did a great job.

”Westbrook and Collard emerged on top after a battle with the Ferrari of major rivals Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander. Both these cars were hit with a 50kg penalty before the race weekend – that’s equivalent to carrying a light passenger or a full tank of fuel – due to the FIA decreeing that their drivers were all of a ‘platinum’ standard.

“It’s designed to make the racing closer and give more cars a chance,” said Westbrook. “But 50kg is a lot of weight to carry, especially at Silverstone where there are so many long, fast corners.That was apparent in the race, when I was fighting with so many people.

” The lack of qualifying pace – try as the team did, it could not get the best out of its tyres – meant that fighting was exactly what was needed. And, with things turning around for the race so that the car was fantastic over long stints, that’s exactly what happened.

“I did a lot of overtaking at the beginning and was lying second behind Bruni,” said Richard. “I had to be patient, because overtaking’s not easy at Silverstone, and then as soon as I was close up to him he pitted. ‘Manu’ got in the car and was behind Vilander, but then we had a bad second pitstop. The engine just wouldn’t fire up and I came out 10 seconds behind Bruni.”

The chase was on, until a problem sidelined the Ferrari. “The team told me to go for it and I was very confident after experiencing how good the car was in the first stint,” said Richard, “and I got the gap down to six seconds in four laps. I was taking one second out of his lead per lap and we were sure we would get past him, so it’s a shame it ended as it did because it would’ve been a grandstand finish for the crowd.”

“I really have to compliment our engineer for giving us such a good race set up. It was the first race this year for the new michelins, which are mandatory for eveyone, and we got it right first time out.” Now Westbrook and Collard defend their championship lead into the second round, at the twisty Adria circuit in Italy on May 16 – and more ballast. “We’ve got another 15kg coming to us because of our win, but I’m happy to get the points from Silverstone. It was a dream start and totally unexpected after qualifying.”

www.richardwestbrook.co.uk

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