Estonia's Tristan Viidas and Norway's Inge Hanseseatre took 2nd place in the BMW M235 class at the 3rd round of the VLN Endurance Championship - Nürburgring Circuit Series at the Nürburgring in Germany over the weekend. Thanks to this good result, Viidas also became the new overall series leader.
Viidas and Hanseseatre finished second in the time trial. "Due to a large number of accidents and speed limits, Ingel and I were unable to set a fast time at the start of the time trial, so I was sent back on track for the last lap. Luckily the track was clearer and the result was second best time in class. It was also my best lap time so far, 9.06.9," said a satisfied Viidas.
At the start, Viidas managed to maintain his position and by the end of the first lap, the top three had closed the gap with the next. Unfortunately, the Estonian was plagued by understeer throughout the weekend, which dropped him down to third place quite early on. By the end of Viidas' shift, the gap to the leaders had shrunk to almost 50 seconds, while the gap to the chasers was the same. The Norwegian kept the car firmly in third place throughout his shift. By the final hour, Viidas had retaken the lead from Hanseseatre and was back on track in third, over a minute behind the leaders and 20 seconds behind the closest runner-up. With 4 laps to go, Tobias Müller, who had shown better pace, managed to overtake Viidas and move up to third. On the penultimate lap, however, all the riders were forced to come into the pits for a final refuelling stop. Viidas, who had been driving economically, had managed to save more fuel than his rivals, which meant that he made his stop quicker than the others. Thanks to this he was able to climb back up to third place and finished the race in third position.
However, the award ceremony was not held on Saturday, as a protest was lodged against the winners David Griessner and Yannick Fübrich, which was eventually upheld. Namely, the #650 car had a modified larger petrol tank, which resulted in a total of almost a minute being saved by pit stops during the race. This put Viidas and Hanseseatre in second place. The race was won by the German duo of Michael Schrey and Marc Ehret. Third place also went to the Germans Tobias Müller, Nico Otto and Lars Peucker. With second place, Viidas became series leader ahead of Müller, Otto and Peucker.
"I still had a lot of momentum from the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring, so I would have hoped for even closer competition and a better race from my side, but unfortunately I couldn't control the understeer. Nevertheless, at the end of the races, a strong second place and good points and overall series leader is the reward. Now I have two weeks to get my own race and car right, because the next race is all up to me," Viidas was not satisfied with the weekend to the end.
The 4th stage will take place in two weeks on 7 July. In the next race, Viidase will have to ride four hours on his own, as Hansesætre has to be away from the races due to work commitments.
Photo: 1VIER.com
