Shahin “Looked for Early Flights” After Red Flag

Yasser Shahin thought Manthey EMA “were done for” after the red flag in the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps threw the team’s strategy upside down before battling back to take the LMGT3 class win in a dramatic conclusion.

The Australian Bronze-rated driver claimed his first world championship win in Saturday’s third round of the FIA World Endurance Championship after co-driver Richard Lietz completed a last-lap pass on stablemate Klaus Bachler to win.

The victory came as part of a dramatic final phase that played out after the race was restarted and extended following a lengthy red flag triggered by a significant crash involving Earl Bamber and Sean Gelael.

At the time of the stoppage, the No. 92 Porsche 911 GT3 R, shared between Shahin, Lietz and Morris Schuring was leading, but due for a pitstop that it wasn’t able to make because the race was halted.

Therefore, the car dropped back down the order when the race got restarted after officials made the decision to extend the duration of the contest for the period of the red flag.

“It would be nice if we had a bit less drama,” Shahin said after the race.

“Let’s just start with that. Look, it was a roller coaster ride. We’ve come a long way.

“It’s my first year in WEC, first year in a [Type-]992, first year in this format, and new to a lot of these tracks.

“So it’s just an amazing learning curve that’s only possible with great co-drivers and a great team. If I look at where we started this weekend, we really wouldn’t have had any ambition to finish where we did.

“But we made really solid progress every session, and by qualifying, we fully deserved and thought we could compete for an outright result.

“The start was OK. I had a very disciplined first couple of stints and brought it in in P3. We had a slightly messy pit stop, but Morris fought back to bring us into the lead.

“Then the red flag came and I thought we were done for. In fact, I was looking for earlier flights.

“Then we just watched it change, and then maybe half an hour ago, we thought, ‘Oh, there could be something here.'”

Shahin’s co-driver Lietz, who made the last lap pass on Bachler that sealed the victory for the No. 92 crew, later admitted that he had “no idea” that he had just made a race-winning pass until he was informed of it by his engineer.

“We knew that with the red flag and our strategy, we were a bit on the bad side, I would say,” said the Austrian.

“Because we were in a really good position from Yasser’s stint and from Morris’ stint.

“We were leading, and then we would have changed driver, and 20 seconds too early the safety car and the red flag arrived.”

This put the No. 91 Porsche on the back foot once the race restarted, pitting after the safety car restart to drop back down the order.

Lietz noted that the team believed it was “basically fighting for nothing” and focused on preserving tires for the closing stint, but the team’s odds changed when the No. 54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 as well as both of the Iron Lynx-operated Lamborghinis made late fuel stops.

“The engineer said, ‘Okay, we’ll be fine, we can drive now. Maybe we are fighting for a podium,” Lietz recalled.

“Then suddenly he was like, ‘OK, now this was the pass for the victory.’ I didn’t get P3 or anything else.

“So for sure, from driver point of view, on the last stint, I was surprised by the result.

“But I think that team-wise, and especially with these teammates here, I think we deserve to be on the podium or fighting for the victory.

“And after the red flag, taking the victory basically a second time in this race, I’m really happy.”

Bachler “Had No Choice” But to Lift to Avoid Running Out

Klaus Bachler, who finished second in the No. 92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche after losing out to Lietz on the final lap, told Sportscar365 afterwards that he had “no choice” but to slow down on the final lap to avoid running out of energy.

The Austrian moved into first in class at the start of the final lap pitted when Franck Perera splashed for fuel in the No. 60 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, only to be caught and passed by Lietz as he tried to make it to the finish.

“For sure, we were close to the victory,” Bachler said.

“But also we have to say I did not expect to win because I thought the Lamborghini managed it to the end.

“I think they were one lap too short, like we nearly were. For sure to lose the victory in the last lap in Turn 5 [Les Combes] is not nice but it’s the sister car and in the end we had no energy anymore, so we had no choice.

“If you have to pit for another pitstop, for sure we will not finish second, we will finish fifth, maybe seventh.

“So we tried everything to make it and we did it.”