Andreas Roos, boss of BMW M Motorsport, believes the German producer once more “did some steps on pure tempo”, although a collection of penalties for its two Hypercar entries prevented it from following up on the points-paying finishes of Qatar and Imola.
“The tempo was there to combat for place 5, six, seven,” Roos informed Autosport after the 2 BMWs got here dwelling eleventh and thirteenth in Saturday’s Spa 6 Hours.
“We did some good lap occasions and while you have a look at the screens our automobiles are quickest within the first sector and quickest within the final sector.”
The tempo of the BMW LMDh contender over the quick sections of the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is important because the marque and its manufacturing unit WRT workforce construct in direction of the Le Mans 24 Hours blue riband spherical of the WEC subsequent month.
Sectors 1 and a pair of on the Belgian circuit extra precisely replicate the Circuit de la Sarthe than anyplace else on the WEC calendar.
“While you see that we have been capable of be fifth in first qualifying, the velocity is there to someway combat for good outcomes,” Roos mentioned.
“I might not say we’re already there with the tempo to win races, however on pure tempo, we once more did some steps.
#20 BMW M Staff WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Sheldon Van Der Linde, Robin Frijns, Rene Rast
Picture by: Emanuele Clivati | AG Picture
“We have now to place all the pieces collectively and there have been undoubtedly too many errors and penalties.”
The #20 BMW LMDh shared by Rene Rast, Robin Frijns and Sheldon van der Linde was awarded two penalties early within the Spa 6 Hours.
Rast acquired a drive-through for inflicting a collision when he and Jota Porsche driver Phil Hanson got here collectively on the run from Malmedy to the Rivage/Bruxelles hairpin.
Frijns, in the meantime, was given a five-second time penalty for gaining a bonus because of leaving the monitor whereas lapping an LMGT3 automobile.
Roos questioned the choice in opposition to Rast.
“The place ought to Rene go? There was nowhere he might go?” he requested.
Rast had acquired a greater run than Hanson out of the Malmedy righthander after Les Combes and had moved out of the Porsche’s slipstream on the run to the hairpin when the Porsche driver jinked proper as he tried to maneuver previous the #46 WRT BMW M4 GT3 pushed by Ahmad Al Harthy.
#38 Hertz Staff Jota Porsche 963: Jenson Button, Philip Hanson, Oliver Rasmussen, #46 Staff WRT BMW M4 LMGT3: Ahmad Al Harthy, Valentino Rossi, Maxime Martin
Picture by: Paul Foster
The rear of the Porsche made contact with the left entrance of the BMW, sending Hanson into the M4 and the boundaries.
Roos mentioned the incident led to a “double penalty” as a result of in addition to the drive-through, the #46 WRT entry that Al Harthy shared with Maxime Martin and Valentino Rossi retired because of the incident.
The #20 Hypercar entry pushed by Raffaele Marciello, Dries Vanthoor and Marco Wittmann acquired a 30s stop-go after the primary named engaged reverse gear after overshooting his pit stall.
BMW scored a degree on the WEC debut of the M Hybrid V8 in Qatar in March after the disqualification of the Ganassi-run Cadillac V-Sequence.R LMDh and adopted it up with sixth at Imola in April.
Fifth place for Rast within the preliminary spherical of qualifying was the perfect efficiency at that stage of the weekend by a BMW over the primary three races this 12 months, although the German ended up solely tenth within the Hyperpole session that units the primary 10 locations on the grid.