All three BWT Lechner Racing cars made it into the Top Ten at the highlight of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup season 2022, the support race to the Monaco F1 Grand Prix on Sunday. Best on track was Harry King, racing at the famous and ever so challenging 3.337 km track through the city of Monte Carlo only for the second time in his career. The Brit just missed out on pole position for less then 6 hundredths of a second from reigning champion Larry ten Voorde.
“It was a very good qualifying, even when at the very end, after the first red flag, I really pushed hard one more time to improve my time again and slightly touched the wall going up to the Casino. But I hope the damage to the car is not too big – anyway, apologies to my mechanics for giving them some extra work.” Unfortunately King later received a 3-place grid penalty for ignoring yellow flags, which dropped him back to P5.
Imola winner and current championship leader Dylan Pereira was hit by the typical Monaco problem of being stopped twice by red flags when trying to improve his time and had to be content with fourth place: „It was not perfect, even if we had the speed, especially on this tight circuit. But there might be rain on Sunday, so there could be quite some changes still. For sure ideally I am still aiming for a podium finish and will try to defend my championship lead, but I also have to keep in mind to make sure I score points in the title race.”
Danish BWT Lechner Racing rookie Bastian Buus, driving for the first time in the legendary streets of Monaco, finished in P9: “It is really challenging, you know you have to take some risk, but not too much, you also have to find a gap in the traffic. But I am fastest of the rookies again, so I think I can be really happy with the result.”
BWT Lechner Racing Team Principal and CEO Robert Lechner is still looking forward to the race on Sunday: “We all know how difficult it is to make it to the front in a Monaco qualifying, you not only need a great performance, but also a certain amount of luck. So having all three of our cars in the Top Ten is for sure quite a strong outcome for the team in a difficult qualifying.
We got a lot of things right, the mechanics worked very well, the timing was good – but then there are always some factors which are out of your hands, like the yellow and red flags. Harry was unlucky, but he did a great job, especially considering that quite a few of his competitors have more experience on this track. I am sure both he and Dylan will be able to attack on Sunday and I also have to say that I am really happy about Bastian´s performance. The first time in Monaco is always very difficult - so mission accomplished.”