Valerio Rinicella and IDEC Sport looked strong during both practice sessions on Friday at Spa-Francorchamps, the fourth round of the European Le Mans Series season, claiming the fastest time overall of the day. They carried that form into qualifying on Saturday as the 19-year-old Italian secured pole position in the #18 IDEC Sport LMP2. Starting from pole on Sunday, the team was chasing its first ELMS victory of the season. However, several factors held them back from taking the winner’s trophy home, as they finished third.
The IDEC Sport driver, who was named Driver of the Day in the LMP2 class, reflected on the race with GT REPORT.
With teammate Jamie Chadwick taking the start from pole position on Sunday, she kept the lead before losing it 15 minutes later to Griffin Peebles in the #22 United Autosports at the safety car restart, the first of many restarts that would follow in what turned out to be a chaotic race. The Italian explains where they lost the chance to take home the victory:
“I think by traffic a bit, but that’s the same for everyone. I think we got it at some bad spots. We need to learn from it because that’s what you need to manage. In the end, it’s all about strategy. We were a bit unlucky with the pit lane timings and the pit stops. I think it’s something we couldn’t predict.”
With so many incidents during the race, the order was constantly shaken up, and IDEC found itself on the wrong side of the coin.
“I think that affected us quite a lot. We struggled with the strategy because at the beginning there were a lot of safety cars. Me and Laurents Hörr had only one hour to drive. So to manage everything, we had to fuel first and then stop again for the driver change. That ruined a bit of the initial plan, but in endurance you can’t predict anything.”
Crossing the line in fourth place, IDEC Sport was later promoted to third after a post-race penalty for the #10 Vector Sport Oreca, which was found to have driven below the minimum driving time.
Still waiting for their first victory of the season, the 19-year-old takes plenty of positives with him towards the next round at Silverstone.
“We don’t need to be disappointed with ourselves. We just need to understand where we can improve and maybe check for more options in strategy overall.”
The Wingfoot Award (Driver of the Day) winner concluded: “We are happy with the result at the end.”
Heading into the penultimate round of the ELMS championship, IDEC Sport sits third in the overall standings, 13 points behind the leading #29 Forestier Racing by Panis, which finished second at Spa, and the #22 United Autosports, which finished fourth. With both those teams being equal on points and the gap still within reach, everything remains possible for a comeback run in the championship.
