Mixed results for Charlotte's premiere in Germany

On Friday there were five 20 minutes practice sessions on the schedule.

- Since I never have raced on this track before, it’s important to get as many laps as possible and then be able to concentrate on the chassis settings, says Charlotte.

During the practice sessions the team tested various set-ups to get the chassis as flexible and smooth as possible. The Saturday began with a warm-up session, where the drivers had 20 minutes to prepare themselves for the time qualification.

The time qualification was a 10 minutes session and the drivers were free to choose when to start their session. Charlotte went out on the track when it was 7 minutes left of the session and got the time 37.544 sec, thereby qualifying her in to place 32.

- This year the competition is tougher than last year since there are 20 drivers from the European Championship. One can see clearly how much difference there is between the drivers who are racing for a big team and the few private drivers, with significantly smaller resources, says Charlotte.

In the heats, she started at 21st and 22nd position. In the first heat she crossed the line on the 19th place and the second heat on the 20th place.

- I made good starts in both heats, but in the first heat there where three drivers crashing in front of me, I had to run out in the grass to pass and lost about 4 seconds on that. Unfortunately I had the same problem in both races. In the first laps I had no grip at all and I had to adjust my driving so much that it wasn’t possible to run as fast as I’d like, Charlotte explains.

In the B-final Charlotte started in fourth place and the first six from this final would go to the A-final. On the third lap Charlotte was badly hit by a driver, who climbed up from the rear of the wheels, over the water hose, cut the tyre and then down again. Because of this they both lost four places. The lap after that, the same driver run over Charlottes left side again, and because of that Charlotte spun around and didn’t make it to the A-final.

- I think this was so unnecessary and I’m so disappointed. I was fourth and he was fifth when this happened, so both had the chance to come to the A-final. You don’t have to be so desperate that it causes an accident for both of us, says Charlotte.

However, there were positive things with the race weekend.

- Timewise, I’m closer to the top drivers now, than I was before. The 0.7 sec gap to the European Championship runner up last year, Rick Dreezen, is something I take with me to the upcoming races, Charlotte finishes.

For more information:
 
Charlotte Haegermark Motorsport:
Contact person: Charlotte Haegermark
E-mail: charlotte@charlotteracing.se
Phone: +46 (0)737-182996