Richard Westbrook

‘Ricard’ Westbrook on podium in France

A determined performance from Richard Westbrook rescued second place in the latest round of the FIA GT Championship at the French Paul Ricard circuit, and kept him well in the hunt for the title with just one round remaining.

The Londoner charged through the field in his ProSpeed Competition Porsche 997 GT3-RSR, which was laden with 100kg more ballast than many of its rivals, to minimise the points disadvantage to new series leaders Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander.

Westbrook and team-mate Emmanuel Collard lost the points lead before they even arrived in France. A non-performance-enhancing homologation issue meant the exclusion of all Porsches from the results of July’s Spa 24 Hours, and meant that a two-point advantage was turned into a one-point deficit to Ferrari men Bruni and Vilander.

Collard qualified the car in seventh place, but was unfortunate to lose out in the early battling with his heavy car, hit with success ballast and extra weight due to the star grading of both its drivers. “We were hoping to qualify a little bit better but it wasn’t quite working out over a lap,” said Westbrook. “We were hoping that our race pace would get us out of jail.”

That process began when Richard climbed aboard for the middle stint and rocketed up to second place. “The extra weight was painful around the Paul Ricard circuit. When I got in I had to be extremely aggressive and get some places back. I had to overtake a load of Ferraris, some of which were team-mates to Bruni and Vilander. But with the weight I had to get them immediately, before they started defending, because if they’d started defending I’d never have got past.

“When ‘Manu’ went back out for the final stint we knew it was going to be a really tough four or five laps to the finish, but he held them all off, and did an absolutely fantastic job because by that point we were having problems with the gearbox. It was crucial for the championship.”

Westbrook and Collard enter the final round, at Zolder in Belgium on October 25, just three points behind the leading Ferrari crew. “That was big-time damage limitation and we’re hoping the Ferrari won’t work quite so well at Zolder,” said Richard. “It’s ProSpeed’s home circuit and I love the track, so it’s still wide open.”