EU-GT4: Series Sliverstone summary

Paul Meijer takes it all SILVERSTONE. Paul Meijer scored a second consecutive victory and so had a perfect Silverstone GT4 weekend. The Dutch former single seater racer won both races of the opening GT4 European Cup meeting and leads the ...

Paul Meijer takes it all

SILVERSTONE. Paul Meijer scored a second consecutive victory and so had a perfect Silverstone GT4 weekend. The Dutch former single seater racer won both races of the opening GT4 European Cup meeting and leads the championship standings with a maximum score. Michael Mallock finished second, making it a 1-2 for Aston Martin, while Christian Dick took a perfect revenge, after yesterday's scruteenering issues, by finishing in third position.

The opening stages of the second GT4 European Cup race in Silverstone were a real thriller. While Paul Meijer copied his strong opening laps of the first race, the battle behind the Dutchman was intense. Belgian Menno Kuus took a perfect start and made it into third position, behind Pierre Brice Mena, both in BMW's M3. While Mena tried to catch up with Meijer, Kuus was under pressure from Matt Nicoll-Jones and Christian Dick in the Ginettas G50 and Mathijs Harkema in his Porsche. Last bu not least, French GT regular Mena spun off and lost precious time.

After a contact, a puncture slowed down Harkema and a broken gearbox forced Kuus into retirement. Meanwhile Michael Mallock recovered in spectacular way after a difficult start and caught up with the Ginetta drivers and Kevin Veltman in the remaining BMW at front.

After the pitlane window, Meijer still had a 7-second lead, with a hard pushing Mallock behind him. Mallock did everything he possibly could, but the Dutchman was on his way to a second consecutive victory. Third place went to Christian Dick in the Ginetta G50, followed by BMW drivers Veltman and Mena.

The Nicoll-Jones and Abott Ginetta, Ordonez in the RJN Nissan 350Z and the Palmer and Pearson Nissan 350 Z completed the top-8.

In the Supersports class KTM Greek driver Athanasios Ladas took victory in the ultimate lap from Gianni Guidici in his Lotus 2Eleven.

Quotes:

Paul Meijer (1st): "I'm sorry for what happened at the start. I might have slowed down a bit too much. I'm not used to this starting procedure and might have caused some confusion. Sorry for that... My race was very good, but by the end of the race, my tyres were really dead. But anyway, I had a perfect weekend!"

Michael Mallock (2nd): "I lost it at the start... The last metres before the start were confusing and in the mayhem it all went wrong for me. I dropped down to the bottom of the ranking. The rest of the race was really great and finishing only a few seconds behind Meijer means that we made important progression between race 1 and race 2."

Christian Dick (3rd): "I was really surprised by what happened yesterday... we just don't understand where that difference in weight came from. This third place today is a perfect answer to our yesterday's bad luck. I also enjoyed the raceing, with all the different makes and the close competition!"

Athanasios Ladas (Super Sport): "It was good fun this weekend, I only would like to see some more competitors because this class is really nice. The cars are special and the competition is good. Come to Spa!"