Rast Admits BMW “Bitten” By Long Run Focus in Practice

BMW driver Rene Rast admits that the Bavarian marque was “bitten” by its run plan in practice for this weekend’s 6 Hours of Fuji, after the cancellation of qualifying amid heavy rain left the No. 20 crew 17th and last on the Hypercar grid.

Saturday’s qualifying session was called off due to the poor conditions, after an early crash for Francois Heriau’s Ferrari LMGT3 car, which meant the grid order was decided by the combined order from Friday’s two free practice sessions.

BMW’s decision to eschew qualifying simulations on Friday has left the two M Hybrid V8s down the order, with the No. 15 car of Kevin Magnussen, Dries Vanthoor and Raffaele Marciello, the better-placed of the brand’s two entries in 14th.

Rast, Robin Frijns and Sheldon van der Linde, meanwhile, will start from the rear of the Hypercar order in line with the car’s position from Free Practice 2.

“It’s something we didn’t have on our bingo card,” Rast told Sportscar365 immediately after qualifying.

“We had it in mind that that qualifying could be cancelled after FP2, but it was a bit too late! And then obviously it was wet in FP3 so we couldn’t do anything [to improve the car’s position on combined lap times].

“We were preparing for the race and focusing on long runs, and now we have been bitten by that. But it is what it is. You cannot really plan for those things.

“Hindsight is always easy, but you never stop learning. It’s something we will have in our minds when we come back here next year.”

Looking ahead to his prospects of a recovery in the race, Rast admitted that making serious progress up the order will be challenging without some luck, saying that a top-ten finish would be a good return for the No. 20 car from its grid position.

“Race pace looked decent,” said the German. “We are for sure not the fastest, but we are somewhere in the mix, I would say.

“For sure from last position it’s always difficult, and we may need to make a strategy gamble like we did in previous races. The problem when you start so far back is that others can react to you. We are also last in the pit lane [order].

“It’s an unfortunate situation. A top ten would be nice. Anything more than that, we would need some luck.”

Rast and Frijns are level on points at the head of the Hypercar order with Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries and Mike Conway, who will take the start of the Fuji race 13th in the No. 7 Toyota TR010 Hybrid.

Toyota’s No. 8 car, whose drivers lie third in the championship and 11 points back from the two leading crews, will start eighth, while the cars up the front of the grid, principally Alpine, Aston Martin and Genesis, are further back in the title race.

“Not much has changed for us, because most of the cars at the front of the grid are not really in contention for the championship,” said Rast.

“The main contenders are just in front of us, they are not in the first two or three rows. So I think it’s going to be difficult for all of us tomorrow.”

Speaking more broadly on he and Frijns’ title chances with three races to go, Rast added: “As long as it’s possible, we will for sure fight for the championship.

“But our main goal is to maximize every weekend, to score points wherever we can, and hopefully still be in the fight until the last race and put on a good show for the fans.

“We focus on ourselves and we try to maximize every weekend.”