Vanthoor, Picariello at Odds Over Suzuka Clashes

Photo: Gruppe C Photography

Porsche drivers Laurens Vanthoor and Alessio Picariello have shared their views on the instances of contact between their cars in the Suzuka 1000km, with both drivers accusing the other of being overly aggressive towards a member of the same brand.

Absolute Racing’s Vanthoor and Picariello, driving for Origine Motorsport, came to blows as early as the very first lap of Sunday’s revived Intercontinental GT Challenge fixture as they battled for third in their Porsche 911 GT3 Rs.

Having gone either side of the fast-starting Audi of Franky Cheng that made a poor exit out of Turn 2, the two Belgian drivers ran side-by-side towards Turn 3, with Picariello on the inside and Vanthoor on the outside.

However, Vanthoor ran wide into Turn 3 and went over the grass as he attacked into Turn 4, pushing Picariello off line to grab the position.

Later in the race, there was another episode once both Vanthoor and Picariello had returned for their second stints, as Picariello made an ambitious lunge up the inside of the hairpin immediately after the first safety car, albeit without gaining the place.

“It started in Turn 1 when I was on the inside and he just drove in my door three times,” Vanthoor told Sportscar365 after he and co-drivers Kevin Estre and Patrick Pilet finished second behind the No. 32 Team WRT BMW.

“That part on the grass was my mistake; I wanted to stay on the outside but I went a bit deep. But then two hours later he ran into my door twice.

“Alessio is a fellow Belgian, we get along, he’s a bit younger than me, but I feel like I wanted to prove a point towards something or somebody. Normally those kind of moves we don’t do between Porsches.”

For his part, Picariello told Sportscar365: “I knew there would be a fight [with Vanthoor], which is completely fine. But going into Turn 1, we already had two small contacts and in Turn 4 it could have ended in disaster.

“I think it was a bit too aggressive from his side, but luckily both cars were more or less fine and we could continue. I left a gap because I knew he would come in hot.”

While unhappy with the events of the first lap, Picariello took responsibility for the later contact with Vanthoor, which came after the No. 6 Porsche had begun to lose pace due to a large piece of the car’s floor working lose.

Picariello recalled: “I was just frustrated with the situation with our car issues. We also lost two positions because the safety car came out while we were resetting the stint time and I knew track position was crucial at that time, especially with our issue.

“Luckily nothing major happened, but two Porsches shouldn’t collide, so it was not smart from my side.”

Floor Issue Cost No. 6 Porsche a Second Per Lap

Explaining the floor issue in more detail, Picariello said that the problem cost a chance of he and his co-drivers Bastian Buus and Laurin Heinrich a strong shot at second, although he added matters improved once the offending piece broke off entirely.

However, the 32-year-old said the damage was not caused by the events of the first lap, but rather by a mistake made by the Origine crew during the rebuild process.

“The floor started coming loose pretty early into the race, already at the end of my first stint,” said Picariello. “It was still acceptable but at the end of hour three, at the end of Laurin’s first stint, it became worse and we started losing a second of pace.

“We had huge vibrations, which cost us rear downforce and top speed as well. From that point on we knew it would be hard to get a good result.

“When we lost [the piece of floor] it was a bit better again but we were still too slow to fight properly for position. I think we could have been the first Porsche.”

Vanthoor also admitted there was no way the NewMan-liveried No. 7 Porsche could have won the race considering the searing pace of the winning No. 32 BMW crew.

“We couldn’t have done any better,” he said. “They were quicker, they controlled the race and that was it. Second was the best we could have achieved.

“You always want to win but it wasn’t there for us today no matter what we did.”

John Dagys contributed to this report

Source: Sports Car 365