John Martin had a disappointing return to Spa-Francorchamps, as he looked to repeat the success of his 2012 Six Hours of Spa podium result.
Martin’s worst ever World Endurance Championship qualifying position set up a poor weekend for the G-Drive Racing driver.
“We made some changes to the car for the warm up and it went really well,” explained Martin. “We made some changes on the grid, too, which made the first stint quite difficult really, not the nicest car I have driven around Spa anyway. We’d done a lot more laps than other people in qualifying and you then have to start the race on the same tyres from qualifying so it was pretty hard work from the beginning.”
The #26 G-Drive managed to move as high as second place as the race wore on, but an accident at Pouhon saw the team stuck in an awkward position, losing time getting back on the track and in the pits for repairs.
“When I hoped in the car the second time, Mike had done a really good job,” Continued Martin. “The track temperature was coming down and the grip was coming up, the track was getting faster and faster. By the time I got back in the car for my second two stints the car had been crashed so it was quite a different drive. We won’t really know where the car’s at until the boys do the set down, but by the end there was quite a bit of over steer, which makes it quite difficult to drive. Maybe some of the decision were not the right ones for the race but we got some valuable data that we will put to good use for Le Mans.”
