Vibrations halt Andy Priaulx at Zandvoort

RMG BMW’s Andy Priaulx said a vibration halted his charge at Zandvoort, following his switch to option tyres.

The triple WTCC champion qualified 15th at the Dutch circuit and appeared to be making good headway in the race until he made his second stop for the option Hankook rubber.

However, A vibration on his BMW M3 developed within three laps of the second stop, and Priaulx was forced to return to the pits within 10 laps of the problem occurring.

“The car was just nowhere for me,” said Priaulx. “I was in the ball park early on, but within three laps of putting the options on I started to get vibrations.

“That got progressively worse and within ten laps I had to come in or else risk a major incident. I don’t know what happened to the tyre, but they were wearing extremely quickly.

Priaulx also said the Safety Car period halted his charge through the field, as he felt he was making good progress at the time of the accident between Jamie Green and Dirk Werner.

“Before the safety car I was able to make up some ground on my primes, but when the safety car came out we could not take the fight to anyone.

“It was a good call from the team to swap tyres again, but with only one lap left there was nothing I could do.”

Priaulx eventually finished the race 19th, with RMG team-mate, Martin Tomczyk, ending his race just out of the points in 11th.