BMW Spirits Boosted by Imola Performance – Sportscar365

Photo: Parliamentary Agency

Sheldon van der Linde and BMW M Motorsport director Andreas Roos viewed BMW M Team WRT’s sixth place in the 6 Hours of Imola as a huge morale booster for the German brand after battling for a top-five finish in its second FIA World Endurance race. . Championship.

Van der Linde, Robin Frijns and Rene Rast took BMW’s best position to date in the Hypercar class during Sunday’s six-hour race at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari.

The number 20 BMW M Hybrid V8 was the top ten of the Imola presence and raced to second at the end of the final hour.

Van der Linde in particular spent several rounds battling No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Brendon Hartley before finally falling back.

“It’s a big surprise and a big relief for everyone in the program that we’ve made a big step since Qatar,” the South African told Sportscar365.

“I think it motivates the whole team. Seeing even our car and Toyota in the same picture is obviously a motivation for everyone in the box.

“I think I had the most time I’ve ever had in a race car. I was really limited with the soft tire in the rain, almost going offline or on the gravel a few times too, which obviously cost us some time.

“But I think realistically it would have been maybe P5 in the end, nothing more. I’m very happy with the result. I think we can be very proud of the step we took.

“We can’t expect to hit the same pace every single race now, but I think we’re closer than we expected to be and that’s a big and nice surprise.”

Roos was equally upbeat about the result, noting that BMW could aim for a “real top five” at Imola and appeared pleased with the race result.

“We have to be realistic,” Roos told Sportscar365.

“Yes, when everything went right, we could have ended up fighting for the podium, but the real result of the top five was there.

“This is, for us in the Hypercar field of 19 cars, a good result in (only) the second race.

“It’s not the result we got just because some had problems and some made mistakes or whatever, I think it was possible because of the speed and the pace we had in the car.”

Van der Linde clearly challenged for third against Hartley under changing conditions in the closing stages of the race.

The South African, coming close to overtaking Toyota on numerous occasions at Tosa, spoke afterwards that it was “not meant to be” and reflected on how difficult it was to stay in contention on a wet circuit.

“It was just to keep your confidence on the outer circuits,” Van der Linde said.

“It was very difficult to know where to hold because I didn’t have the track in front of me or the cars in front to gauge it.

“So I was completely alone and our outside rotations are still a small weakness. So this is something that we need to improve at the end, but I think we know where to improve and that is one of the main topics we want to fix.

“I think I could (pass Hartley), but this track is very difficult to pass at the end.

“So you’re relying on a mistake from him or when he gets stuck in traffic, for example, which wasn’t the case.

“I think he defended himself well. So in that case I tried, but it wasn’t meant to be.”

A top five finish for the Munich marque was ultimately curtailed by a drive through penalty, which Van der Linde revealed was the result of contact with a mechanic during a pitstop.

“It was sliding down the gantry for some reason,” he said.

“I went in at a normal speed, a respectable speed for these conditions and I lost the rear end and the rear lock.

“So that is unfortunate. Fortunately the boy is fine. That is the most important thing. I hit him on the back wing and that’s when we got the penalty in the end.”

Davey Euwema is the European Editor of Sportscar365. Based in the Netherlands, Euwema covers the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship, the European Le Mans Series and Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, among other series.