PRIAULX, TINCKNELL AND RIED TOP GTE AM

The Proton Dempsey team made a pair of tactical calls in the final stages of the Spa 6 Hours that yielded GTE Am victory for the Porsche 911 RSR (below) shared by Harry Tincknell, Sebastien Priaulx and Christian Ried. One without the other probably wouldn’t have been enough for the car to beat the TF Sport Aston Martin that took the chequered flag a scant second and a half behind in the hands of Marco Sorensen.

With an hour and 20 minutes of the race to run, Tincknell took over the car from Priaulx and was given the softcompound Michelin. Just over half an hour later, the team opted not to bring him into the pits during the penultimate full-course yellow. That leapfrogged the car into the lead, the team opting for what Tincknell described as the

“fuel marathon”, and then the soft tyres proved crucial after the final, last-gasp FCY.

Tincknell used the softs after taking over the car from Priaulx to scythe through up to third place behind the Northwest AMR Aston Martin Vantage GTE driven by Nicki Thiim, David Pittard and Paul Dalla Lana and the TF car that Sorensen shared with Ben Keating and Henrique Chaves.

Sorensen leapfrogged his former factory team-mate

Thiim in the pits and was right with the Porsche when the yellows flew for one last time. Tincknell was struggling as his softs went away against an Aston that was on the harder of the two Michelin compounds. The last FCY was crucial because it allowed the Brit’s rubber to cool down.

“The pace was really strong until it really started to dry out and the soft tyre started to degrade,” explained Tincknell. “I went from thinking this is a 40-minute victory drive, to we are in trouble now. Not only did the last FCY help with the fuel, but it also cooled the tyres down. It was win or fence. I tried to pull away when the tyres were cool and managed to get four or five seconds.”

Sorensen reckoned the win was on for TF but for the late VSC. “We would definitely have had a better go at it but for that,” he said. “He could really switch his tyres on when it went green.”

Thiim was two seconds behind the TF Aston in third position at the end of the race.