Martin: 24H Spa Chance to “Reset” After Monza Penalty

Maxime Martin says this weekend’s CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa will be a chance for him to “reset” and “come back stronger” after a tough previous GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup event at Monza.

The Mercedes-AMG factory ace was penalized for his part in an opening-lap pileup at Monza triggered by him overtaking beyond the track’s boundaries and, when he rejoined, forcing Alessio Rovera’s Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo to take avoiding action, which sparked mayhem behind.

Martin, in the No. 17 GetSpeed-run entry, was slapped with a three-minute penalty for his role in the crash that caused the instant retirement of seven front-running contenders and, despite leading at the time of the penalty, the team opted to withdraw the car.

Now Martin is looking to bounce back at Spa, in what will mark his 20th event start, when he will share with Maxi Goetz and Fabian Schiller.

“For sure, when you start the race, you never want it to end like this,” he told Sportscar365 of the incident.

“It was a shame there were so many people involved in the crash. Some people will blame some drivers, some people will blame other drivers. In the end, it doesn’t matter — I got the penalty.”

When asked if, looking back, he thinks there was anything he could have done differently, Martin replied: “No, to be honest, I don’t think I would’ve done anything different. It was one of those things.

“Some race incidents some people have judged in one way, I believe in another way but that’s sometimes racing. I’ve been here for many years and I know that sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad — it’s part of the game. But Spa will be for sure a good reset.”

Martin is confident of another strong result at his home track, after the Mercedes-AMG has been a regular frontrunner in major GT3 events so far this year, including triumphing in the Nürburgring 24 and Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour that has put him in the joint lead of the Intercontinental GT Challenge drivers’ championship.

“We’ve shown, even with the whole mess, that we were competitive in Monza,” he added. “We have shown we were competitive in Paul Ricard, so I’m pretty sure we can be competitive at Spa.

“We’ve had very good results but, on the other hand, every race is very different. Every race has very different regulations so we can be confident because we were strong at Nürburgring and won.

“We have confidence but it’s not the same so we need to work and I’m sure we can be in a good spot.”

Juncadella: Spa Gives Opportunity to End “Unlucky” Run

Fellow Mercedes-AMG driver Dani Juncadella is also seeking to bounce back at Spa after some recent disappointing GT3 events, with his No. 3 Verstappen Racing car having been caught up in the Monza chaos and also retiring from the lead of the N24, which was instead won by the sister Winward Racing-run machine.

Despite only a podium in the GTWC Europe Sprint Cup at Brands Hatch in terms of strong results, Juncadella has been encouraged by how competitive the German manufacturer has been this season.

“I think we’ve been fairly unlucky so far this year with the Verstappen Racing car,” he told Sportscar365.

“Nürburgring and GT World Challenge hasn’t really gone fully our way but we’ve been extremely competitive — we’ve always been running up front or running close to the front so that’s also great.

“As a driver, when you have DNFs and so on that don’t really depend on you, it is what it is. It’s racing, it’s part of the game.

“I’m happy with the performance and having the chance to fight up front and be competitive and Spa is the ultimate endurance test for any GT driver and any GT car so it’s going to be hectic but looking forward to that.

“I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t be confident to have a chance to win.”