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Benjamin Lessennes aims to bounce back after troubled long race at Zolder

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Boutsen Ginion Racing’s Benjamin Lessennes hopes for strong points on Sunday after finishing a lowly seventh in today’s qualifying long race, after he was taken out of the lead on the first lap in an incident with Meindert van Buuren’s Audi RS 3.

The Honda made its typical strong start, with Lessennes straight up to second from sixth on the grid in the Civic Type R TCR, with the 18-year-old Belgian making a move on the Audi of van Buuren at the first chicane, before he was hit and forced into the pits for repairs at the end of the lap.

“I had a really good start and was P2 before the first chicane,” said Lessennes to TouringCarTimes. “But then the first guy in the Audi made a big mistake at the first chicane. I overtook him and I was one car and a half ahead of him, and then on the brakes at the next corner, he didn’t brake and hit me so hard.

“We then had a problem with the splitter and something was also wrong with the steering after that so it was impossible to set a good lap time, but we’ll be fast tomorrow.”