Photo: TCR Europe

Maxime Potty rues Race 2 braking issue after “up-and-down” weekend

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Team WRT driver Maxime Potty was left ruing what could have been after a loss of brakes cost the Belgian a double points finish in the second race at Spa-Francorchamps.

The Belgian, who recorded his first podium of the season in Saturday’s opening race, had been disputing fifth place with the DG Sport Compétition Peugeot 308TCR of Aurélien Comte and the Target Competition Hyundai i30 N TCR of Andreas Bäckman.

But a loss of brakes on the final lap approaching the Bus Stop chicane which sent the Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR into a high-speed spin.

Potty told TouringCarTimes: “[It was a] very difficult race for me, I was struggling to get the rhythm with the car.

“We could have scored some good points but I had some small contact with Gilles and Andreas Bäckman.

“I don’t really know what happened, I wasn’t sure if I locked my brakes or something but we will analyse it. But since this, I had a big vibration, so I had a lot of understeer.

“And then on the final lap, unfortunately there was a very large vibration which forced me to run very wide at Blanchiment. And then when I came to brake for the chicane, I had no brakes.

“I pushed the pedal to the floor but it spun me round.”

Race 2 was effectively run for six minutes following a lengthy safety car intervention to recover the Hyundais of Daniel Nagy and Natan Bihel, for separate incidents.

Several drivers were involved in contact throughout and, although Potty emerged unscathed, the Belgian was unimpressed with driving standards.

“It’s been an up-and-down weekend, after a strong podium and good fightback yesterday we wanted to score a lot of points because the others didn’t,” Potty said.

“For me it was okay, it was battling. But for the others it wasn’t battling, it was too much. I know there is always a little bit of touching, that’s normal, but that wasn’t racing.

Potty however remained satisfied with a first podium of the season, and hopes to repeat this feat at the Red Bull Ring in Austria next time out.

“We look forward to Austria, I don’t know how the VW will be on that circuit as I have never driven it before, but we will see. We scored some points this weekend and it’s good for the championship. We need to analyse our issues and understand where they came from and then focus on the next weekend.”