Tom Chilton thrilled after his first Nordschleife laps

Tom Chilton had a taste of the Nordschleife last weekend in preparation for the 2015 event at the iconic German track. The Brit was enthusiastic despite only completing 7 laps of the track during the two days:”It was fantastic!”, commented the ROAL Motorsport driver. “There are 177 corners and you need to try to learn them by heart because there is no room for mistakes. The trees and the barriers are very close, but it was great to lap the track in my Ford Focus 1.6T at 230 km/h.”

The weather did not play in Chilton’s favour, as rain and fog disrupted his work.

“I was only able to do three laps in dry conditions and was able to lap under the 10 minute barrier. On Saturday afternoon the weather changed and the rain caused several red flags.”

Chilton was also looking forward for advice from team owner Roberto Ravaglia, who won the Nurburgring 24 hours in 1989 and 1995 with BMW.

“We met up at 8 a.m., and I thrilled to receive advices from Roberto, who won twice there with BMW Motorsport. He was going to sit next to me and give me advice, but the fog was too thick for us to lap the track. I believe I will come back here during the break between Suzuka and Macau to learn all of the corners, because at the moment I only learned about 40% of the Nordschleife.”