{"id":4486,"date":"2016-07-31T22:44:12","date_gmt":"2016-07-31T20:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/b106543.web05.cust.bluerange.se\/?p=4486"},"modified":"2016-07-31T22:44:49","modified_gmt":"2016-07-31T20:44:49","slug":"felix-rosenqvist-snatches-late-podium-in-sensational-24-hours-of-spa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/felix-rosenqvist-snatches-late-podium-in-sensational-24-hours-of-spa\/","title":{"rendered":"Felix Rosenqvist snatches late podium in sensational 24 Hours of Spa"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Felix<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Felix Rosenqvist produced a resounding recovery to claim a podium on his first attempt at the 24 Hours of Spa, taking the #88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 \u2013 shared with team-mates Tristan Vautier (France) and Renger van der Zande (the Netherlands) \u2013 to second place in the Belgian GT classic.<\/p>\n

Driving in his first 24-hour race, Rosenqvist experienced a wave of emotions across the event, snatching the podium in the very final stages after completing a determined run to the chequered flag in extremely treacherous conditions. The Swede had taken over the #88 machine in fourth place at the final driver exchange.<\/p>\n

In storming through the pack from early significant setbacks, Rosenqvist, Vautier and van der Zande defeated a host of experienced GT luminaries in a star-studded field featuring 65 cars and approximately 200 drivers (among them several DTM race and title winners).<\/p>\n

The 24 Hours of Spa is the annual highlight of the international GT racing calendar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was one incredible race,\u201d says Felix Rosenqvist.<\/strong> \u201cThere are so many emotions right now; we really couldn\u2019t have dreamt of this. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever pushed a car as hard as I did in that final stint. I really, desperately wanted that podium, mainly for the team who deserve it so much. They have put a lot of effort into this particular race and I know how much it means to all of the guys. We had a perfect strategy, good pit stops, and to be here after 24 hours is an incredible achievement from the entire AKKA-ASP crew.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Rosenqvist was heavily relied upon during the race, completing a full 11 hours behind the wheel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m completely exhausted to be honest,\u201d Rosenqvist continues.<\/strong> \u201cA bit lost for words. I\u2019ve slept for maybe three hours or so since the race started, but it\u2019s part of endurance competition! I\u2019m thrilled to have been a part of this, because it was an amazing experience. You go through so many phases in 24 hours, and it\u2019s completely different to a sprint or single-seater race. You eventually find yourself just banging in the laps and trying to pick your way through traffic, which was all new to me. It\u2019s easy to make a mistake that ruins everything.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Rosenqvist fired a warning shot at his rivals by topping the pre-qualifying session on Thursday, and went on to go a sensational second fastest in the top 20 Super Pole shootout. However, the top six times were subsequently cancelled in controversial fashion, dropping Rosenqvist and AKKA-ASP to 16th on the grid. To make matters worse still, the same six entries were handed a five-minute stop-and-go penalty to be honoured during the first 30 minutes of the race, making the #88 podium fightback all the more imposing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI take many new impressions out of this weekend,\u201d Rosenqvist concludes.<\/strong> \u201cDriving at night is one of them. I did a triple stint in the dark that might have been one of the best performances of my career, if I may say so. We have been through an emotional roller-coaster over the last few days, with high and lows, and it\u2019s been a mighty experience. Right now, however, all I really need is some sleep!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The 2016 24 Hours of Spa was won by Maxime Martin\/Alexander Sims\/Philipp Eng in a BMW M6 GT3.<\/p>\n

Felix Rosenqvist will next be back in action on August 26-28, when the penultimate round of the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup takes place at the Hungaroring in Hungary.<\/p>\n


\nRESULTS
\n<\/strong>Total 24 Hours of Spa | Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium)<\/p>\n

1: M.Martin\/A.Sims\/P.Eng (BMW M6 GT3)
\n2: F.Rosenqvist\/T.Vautier\/R.van der Zande (Mercedes-AMG GT3)<\/strong>
\n3: L.Vanthoor\/R.Rast\/N.M\u00fcller (Audi R8 LMS)
\n4: M.Soulet\/A.Soucek\/W.Reip (Bentley Continental GT3)
\n5: M.G\u00f6tz\/G.Paffett\/T.J\u00e4ger (Mercedes-AMG GT3)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Felix Rosenqvist produced a resounding recovery to claim a podium on his first attempt at the 24 Hours of Spa, taking the #88 AKKA-ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 \u2013 shared with team-mates Tristan Vautier (France) and Renger van der Zande (the Netherlands) \u2013 to second place in the Belgian GT classic. Driving in his first 24-hour […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news3","category-press-releases","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"aioseo_notices":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4486"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4488,"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4486\/revisions\/4488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/felixracing.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}