Henrique Chaves scored a win and a fourth place in the Red Bull Ring’s round of the International GT Open and left the Austrian circuit with a bigger lead in the Drivers’ Standings.
The first race of the weekend came after a difficult qualifying, that ended with Miguel Ramos as ninth fastest. A podium position looked to be a long way from the Portuguese pair, but they didn’t surrender to the struggles.
Miguel Ramos started well the race and was seventh in the end of the first lap. Fifteen minutes later he would overtake another car, continuing the McLaren 720S GT2 recovering.
He handed over the British car to Henrique Chaves in that position, and when the drivers’ change window ended, the Portuguese was already fourth, such was his pace.
The youngster showed a relentless cadence and overtook two cars on the way to second place, signing the fastest lap in the process.
He would cross the finish line in second, but the car ahead was disqualified due to a technical infringement and the pair of the Teo Martin Motorsport’s McLaren 720S were declared winner.
Sunday there was another battle that started with the second qualifying. Henrique Chaves was in the mix for the pole-position, and missed it by 0,003s.
That wasn’t a problem for the Portuguese twenty-three-year-old driver who got the lead in the fifth lap.
Once again, he showed a tremendous pace, opening a gap of six seconds plus for the second placed car, who is in the title hunt, when entered in the pits to give the McLaren 720S GT3 to Miguel Ramos.
With a twenty seconds handicap it would be impossible to win the race and the veteran saw the chequered flag in the fourth position, adding important points to their championship account and reducing the team’s handicap for the first Monza’s race.
“It was two strong races! We were really fast in both of them and we won the first. The second we knew that it would be really hard to get a podium, because of the big handicap that we had and the fourth place was a good result for the championship and strategically for the Monza weekend”, said Henrique Chaves.
With the Red Bull Ring’s results, the Portuguese kept his in the lead of the Drivers’ Standings but extend it from two to seven point. “It was a very important weekend for the rest of the season. We had electrical problems in the beginning of the event, but the team overcome the adversities and gave us a very competitive car. Miguel was very strong all weekend and we were the fastest on the track, as it shows the fastest lap that I signed in both races. We extended our championship advantage, which was our main goal for the weekend, and we are looking forward to Monza”, underlined Henrique Chaves.
The next International GT Open round will be held at Monza, on September 25th – 27th
