Third weekend of the international GT World Challenge Sprint series was driven in traditional german circuit of Hockenheimring. The intense racing weekend didn’t offer much For finnish Konsta Lappalainen and his italian team mate Giacomo Altoe as they encountered one of the most miserable dissapointment of their racing carees in the most important racing weekend of the season 2023.
For the two one hour races Lappalainen entered with well prepared and full of high hopes. However due technical difficulties with the car, he and team mate Giacomo Altoe weren’t able to participate to qualifying nor event. Even the team was able to fix to car to Sundays event, Lappalainen and Altoe finished the race with dissapointing 12th position.
– This was the most important weekend of the season when considering medal positions. Before the weekend got underway we knew that it would be required two podium positions for us to stay in battle for the Championship title. We were ready for the challenge but the technical problem was so severe that it was impossible for us to compete in Saturdays qualifying and race. Then for Sundays race we had lost all build-up feeling and collect 14th position in qualifying and finished the race in 12th position, which were big dissapointments, Lappalainen tells.
In overall standings Lappalainen and Altoe are now 21,5 points behind bronze medalist drivers as there are still four rounds to be driven. Next event gets underway in second weekend of September in traditional iberian MotoGP circuit of Valencia. GT World Challenge Sprint series is led by swiss Raffaele Marciello and his Mercedes-AMG GT3 team mate Timur Boguslavskiyn.
Final results GT World Challenge Sprint Hockenheim, Saturday September 2nd 2023: Overall top-3:
1. Ricardo Feller (SUI) & Mattia Drudi (ITA), Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II, 34 laps
2. Frederic Vervisch (BEL) & Nicolas Baert (BEL) , Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II, +6.614s
3. Charles Weerts (BEL) & Dries Vanthoor (BEL), BMW M4 GT3, +14.332s
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DNS. Konsta Lappalainen (FIN) & Giacomo Altoe (ITA), Ferrari 296 GT3
Final results GT World Challenge Sprint Hockenheim, Sunday September 3rd 2023: Overall top-3:
1. Raffaele Marciello (SUI) & Timur Boguslavskiy (ANA), Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, 35 laps
2. Lucas Legeret (SUI) & Christopher Haase (GER), Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II, 7.049s
3. Erwan Bastard (FRA) & Patric Niederhauser (GER), Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II, +7.774s
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12. Konsta Lappalainen (FIN) & Giacomo Altoe (ITA), Ferrari 296 GT3, +35.861s
GT World Challenge Sprint Europe standings: 6/10 rounds, PRO-group, top-3:
1. Raffaele Marciello (SUI) & Timur Boguslavskiy (ANA), Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, 63,5p
2. Ricardo Feller (SUI) & Mattia Drudi (ITA), Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II, 54p
3. Charles Weerts (BEL) & Dries Vanthoor (BEL), BMW M4 GT3, 46p
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7. Konsta Lappalainen (FIN) & Giacomo Altoe (ITA), Ferrari 296 GT3, 24,5p
Images from GT World Challenge Sprint Hockenheim 2023:
