The IDEC SPORT team arrived in the Belgian Ardennes on Tuesday to compete in the fourth round of the European Le Mans Series season: the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. Finding the right setup was challenging during practice. The weather conditions were unpredictable, and no two days were the same, which only added to the engineers headache.
On Saturday, Job Van Uitert was in charge of qualifying. On his second lap, the Dutch driver set the fastest times in the first two sectors but a red flag prevented him from completing his lap. Once the session resumed, the tires and traffic only allowed the IDEC SPORT driver to secure the 10th fastest time.
On Sunday, August 25, the #28 lined up on the fifth row of the starting grid. At 11:30 AM, the green flag was waved, and the 43 cars set off for 4 hours of racing. The start of the race was clean in the pack but soon the safety car was deployed due to a few race incidents. Marcos Siebert had a good first stint and was in 6th place after a little over an hour of racing. The Argentine handed the wheel to Reshad de Gerus in 5th position.
The Réunion Island driver engages in some great battles right from the start of his stint and takes 4th place with authority. He maintains a relentless pace throughout his entire stint with no mistakes. The Frenchman hands over to Job Van Uitert for the end of the race.
With the pit stop strategy, the Dutch driver rejoined in 12th place but quickly made his way up to 7th. The gaps were tight in the final hour. With 52 minutes remaining, Job was part of a three-car battle for 5th place. The #28 quickly moved up to 6th, then 5th. Before the final stop, the #28 was running in 4th place. Job continued to fight on track until the end and gained another position. The #28 IDEC SPORT crossed the finish line in 3rd place.
The next meeting is on September 29 at Mugello (Italy).
