After making his Lamborghini Huracán GT3 debut two weeks ago, Matias Henkola returned to the Nürburgring to finish a hard-fought 15th place in VLN2 after a strong run back to the front. More importantly, the Finn and the Konrad Motorsport team are on schedule to begin next month’s 24 Hours of the Nürburgring fully prepared.
The Konrad Motorsport team came back stronger for the second VLN race of the year, having gone out of its way in the two weeks between races to fix the problems they encountered in the first race. Matias Henkola and team-mates Michele Di Martino and Christopher Brück lined up the Lamborghini 18th on the grid for the 43. DMV 4-Stunden-Rennen after claiming provisional pole position in the early stages of qualifying.
“I’m really happy with the improvements the team has made on the car since VLN1,” said Henkola.
“The Lamborghini is a relatively new platform at the Nordschliefe and this isn’t a track where you just show up with a new car and start winning—no matter how much experience a team or driver has at this place.”
Brück took the start but had to visit the pits for a precautionary tyre change after hitting debris on the opening lap. Having lost valuable time in the pits, the team went back out to set things right and simultaneously work through its program to prepare for the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring.
The trio of drivers laid down a top 5 race-pace to work their way back into the top 20 and eventually finish in 15th place, three positions higher than their starting position despite losing countless minutes in the pits early on.
“The race to catch up was a lot of fun—we showed a very good pace.
“I’m really pleased with the development curve of the whole team for the ‘N24’. For me, the challenge to enter every driver’s—and race fan’s—favourite race of the year with a new race car and bump heads with the big German manufacturers is really cool.
“Taking on a challenge to push a nimble racer like the Lamborghini flat-out around the Nordschleife for 24-hours straight is just the kind of ballsy stuff that gets my blood flowing.”
Next up for Matias Henkola is the ADAC Qualifying Race 24h this upcoming weekend, the final leg of race preparations before the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring takes place from the 10th through 13th of May.
This article was originally published by GTXM.media/GT REPORT as a press release for Matias Henkola. Subscribe to the mailing list (subscribe here to the German mailing list) to receive yours directly in your inbox.
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