R02 – Portimao – FIA WEC Race Report
A promising fight for the win came to a bitter conclusion for PREMA Racing in round 2 of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship today at Portimao. An untimely late safety-car left the #63 Oreca LMP2 racecar on the short end of the strategy, as it grouped the pack while Daniil Kvyat was running on old tires.
At the final re-start, the rest of the pack quickly caught up. Despite the outstanding pushing and tire-saving effort by Kvyat, P4 was the maximum result achievable at the end after he, Mirko Bortolotti and Doriane Pin stayed in contention for the win all day.
Coming from a memorable Saturday, when Bortolotti delivered an amazing last-gasp pole lap after early technical woes, and from a positive start, with Pin becoming the first woman racer to lead the field to green in FIA WEC history, there is even more motivation and desire ahead of round 3 at Spa-Francorchamps.
The #9 car had a trickier day. In qualifying, Dutchman Bent Viscaal was blocked by another competitor on his fastest lap, which led to 8th place. The race thus turned into a recovery drive. Juan Manuel Correa delivered a swift start and began a steady recovery which was continued by Viscaal and by Filip Ugran. The fight was hard in the mid-pack, but the strategy led to a late rebound, as Correa forced his way back to P6 and tried to go for the top-5 on the last lap.
While they finished in P6, Correa, Ugran and Viscaal got the points for fifth place as one of the competitors is running on a wild-card status. They now are aiming to achieve more in Belgium in a two-week time.
#9 – Filip Ugran
“In the end, we finished P6, and I’m very happy with the team, the car and the performance we put up as drivers. We could have done a bit better in some places, even during my stint. I had a moment with a GT car in the last corner that slowed me down quite a lot, but I’m happy with how the car felt, with my pace, and with how I fought my way around. Let’s see how it goes in Spa.”
source: PREMA Racing https://premaracing.com/en/news/19099-r02-portimao-fia-wec-race-report
