It was a disappointing morning for the #8 Bentley Team M-Sport team in qualifying for round two of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup at Silverstone, with the trio of Andy Soucek, Maxime Soulet and Wolfgang Reip being forced to settle for twenty-seventh on the grid.
Speaking to The Checkered Flag after the session, Soucek admitted his disappointment at the qualifying result, revealing that he was baulked by one of the Lamborghini entries on his first run, and then was without grip on his second run once they switched tyres.
“It was fine with the first set of tyres, really good,” said Soucek to The Checkered Flag. “The car was amazing, but I got blocked by a Lamborghini on my fastest lap, of which the first two sectors were purple so it was looking like a good lap.
“Then on the second set of tyres I just didn’t feel the grip, I struggled a little bit and that’s why we ended up twenty-seventh on the grid.”
Soucek believes a good start, which he will be taking, would help the Bentley squad move up the order from their lowly grid slot, and felt that they could have been in with a shout of a race victory if they were to start further up the grid.
“I think we can move up some places at the start,” said Soucek. “I’ll take the start so I will do my best to recover. Maybe a top ten is possible but I think we had a good chance if we had qualified at the front to win this one, which is a bit of a shame.
“But you never know, if there is a safety car that benefits us, we can make up some more places.”
Soucek admitted that the Bentley feels good around the Silverstone circuit, and believes the trio at they can progress from their lowly grid slot.
“It feels really good,” insisted Soucek. “Yesterday in practice we were P5, the car felt really good and we had some tweaks to do today, the two of them felt really happy with the car as well.
“I think for the race, we will be fast, it’s just to get the first two laps right and not lose a lot of time in the initial stages. I am sure we will go forward, but I don’t know by how much.”
