Laurens Vanthoor experiences a frustrating last weekend of the season
Macau, 20-11-2011. Laurens Vanthoor finished off his motorsport season this weekend with the Grand Prix of Macau F3. The promising Belgian driver started off the weekend poorly, however it looked as though a seventh place on the grid for the final race, in the narrow Macau streets showed promise of clinching a place up front in the most legendary of all F3 competitions. Unfortunately Laurens Vanthoor had an accident at the start of this final race, and was forced to leave his Signature VW single-seater by the trackside. This crash was a frustrating way in which to finish off the season, in which for Laurens Vanthoor was not always able to come up to expectations.
“I don’t know whether I really want to look back on this race, perhaps I should just focus all my energy on the future”, is what a disappointed Laurens Vanthoor had to say just after the crash at the start of the Grand Prix of Macau F3. “I have always performed well here, just remember my second place here last year. This time around I also had my sights on finishing up front, but for the umpteenth time this year bad luck has let me down...”
Laurens Vanthoor experienced a poor start to the weekend, with disappointing results during the free practice sessions, but the Limburg based ambassador of Circuit Zolder systematically worked his way up through the ranks and it looked as though a top result was on the books.
Laurens Vanthoor: “I had loads of problems during the free practice sessions, due mainly to the ever changing weather conditions. Also during the qualifying sessions the set-up still wasn’t ideal, however the situation improved progressively and in the end I was able to start from ninth place for the first, short, qualifying race on Saturday. Ninth out of a field of thirty of the best F3 drivers in the world is a pretty good result, but I knew I could do better as I proved during the first race.”
For the first time during the weekend Laurens Vanthoor started out in full confidence, finishing the short qualifying race on Saturday in seventh place, giving him every hope of producing a good result in the final.
Laurens Vanthoor “The first race was definitely good, and with that seventh place I had my sights on achieving at least a top-5 in the final if not a place on the podium. As luck would have it I was involved in a crash at the start of the final race. An immobilised car ahead of me was hit and I became the victim of the crash that followed... If you know that the driver who was one place ahead of me on the grid would win the race, you will understand my enormous disappointment. It’s now high time to leave this F3 season behind me and to fully concentrate on the 2012 season. The bad luck I experienced this season must surely come to an end. Next season I’m fully determined to slot in where I always found myself in previous years: up front!”
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