De Ridder left frustrated with performance at Spa-Franchorchamps.

PHOTO CREDIT: GC Kompetition.

GCK Academy driver Guillaume De Ridder was left frustrated after not being able to show the true pace of his Renault Clio supercar at Spa-Francorchamps. 

The Belgian got off to a careful start finishing the first qualifying heat in 4th place, finishing in 14th overall. 

The second qualifier was in wet conditions, where De Ridder would line up on the grid with teammate Cyril Raymond, Francios Duval, and Oliver Bennett. Raymond had a good start and battled for the lead into turn one, while Guillaume struggled with a slower start resulting in contact out of the first corner and he ended up in fourth. 

De Ridder continued to battle with Duval in the second qualifier, managing to overtake his fellow Belgian at the Raidillon hairpin. Meanwhile, Raymond jokered on the first lap, managing to push ahead to slot back behind Baumanis and ahead of his teammate. Guillaume jokered on the next lap and managed to fight back and claim third place. De Ridder would end the first day of racing in 14th overall. 

On Sunday, Guillaume had a good start and took the inside line to claim fourth place into turn 1, then he overtook Bennett into the Raidillon hairpin to slot into third. Unfortunately, he suffered from gearbox issues in his joker lap, losing significant speed and falling back into 5th, where he finished the race putting him in seventeenth overall in the standings.

In the final qualifier, De Ridder had a good start and fought off Ide and came out of turn one in second behind Bennett. He then took the lead when Bennet jokered on lap one. Guillaume jokered on the last lap, coming out on the heels of Bennett and finishing the race in second place and moving up the overall standings to fifteenth. 

The Belgian needed to finish in twelfth to qualify for a semi-final at Spa-Francorchamps. 

“I’m a little frustrated this weekend as I think we had a really good pace and good rhythm," said De Ridder.

"When we see the laptimes from Q3 for example, we were P5 and P3 (Cyril) in terms of pace." 

After a frustrating weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, the Belgian aims to improve in Silverstone and sets his sights on a semi-final. 

"I think the pace was there, we keep on improving and have improved again from Barcelona but now in Silverstone, I’d like to translate this pace into results and put it all together," he said. "It was my first race in rain and Q2 was a little delicate but I’m just super eager to put this all together in Silverstone to hopefully fight in the semi-final.”

TEXT - Junaid Samodien