Rick Pearson Barcelona race notes

Promising start for Pearson in Barcelona.

New Sesterheim Motorsport signing, Rick Pearson made a promising start to his European Clio Cup campaign at Barcelona last weekend in his first 2.0 litre race for two and a half years.

Qualifying: 14th

With just one pre-season test session under his belt before the opening race of the season, Pearson was an impressive tenth in first qualifying, dropping back to fourteenth in session two. Despite the loss of four places, the Briton was consistently in the top five on speed trap timings all weekend.

Race: 37th

An eventful first lap saw Pearson hustle his way into tenth place, joining a gaggle of cars vying for a top five position. Up to seventh mid-way through lap two, the former UK Clio Cup runner fell foul of the hard racing European Cup runners and was punted off after contact with another car.

Pearson lost a full lap while waiting to be pulled out of the gravel trap but eventually re-joined the race at the back of the re-start queue. The Briton gave one of the best performances of the afternoon at the re-start, picking off fourteen cars to regain the lost lap.

Quotes.

Rick Pearson: "Overall, a very pleasing weekend. It was great to be reunited with the 'little' Clio after two seasons in the V6 and immediately on the pace despite not having raced at this circuit before. We expected to run well given that we were fastest in testing at Valencia a few weeks ago and sure enough, we were permanently in the top five on the speed trap.

"The car was excellent all weekend thanks to my new team, Sesterheim Motorsport. We're expecting another strong showing at Magny-Cours in two weeks time. It's a circuit I know well and I've had some good results there in the past."

Next Race: Magny-Cours, April 26

-ra-