Luckless streak continues for Chicherit at Spa-Francorchamps

PHOTO CREDIT: GC Kompetition.

Guerlain Chicherit's luckless streak continued at the World RX of Benelux at Spa-Francorchamps.

The first two rounds of the World RX championship has been a real challenge for the GCK team owner. In Abu Dhabi, he had turbo failure in the qualifying heats and the turbocharger needed to be replaced. Heading into the semi-final he had engine issues that slowed him down, he was ranked 10th overall after round one. 

At the second round of the World RX championship at Circuit de Catalunya, Chicherit suffered from a loss of power in Qualifying 2 and required a full engine change overnight. He went on to finish the race weekend in ninth place overall.

Surely, the Frenchmen was due better luck at Spa-Francorchamps...

But it was not to be... On Saturday, Baumanis could not avoid Chicherit and pushed the Frenchman into a spin. He eventually finished in 5th place in Q1. 

Sandwiched between Pal Try, Gregoire Demoustier, Hervé Knapick, and Enzo Ide, Chicherit had a good start in Q1, but contact between Try and Demoustier pushed Guerlain to the outside and he dropped to second. The Frenchman capitalized on clean air when Try jokered on lap 1 and managed to hold the lead through his joker on the last lap to finish Q2 in 1st.

On Sunday, Chicherit jumped the start in Q3 and was forced joker twice. The second bite of the cherry, he had a good start, heading into turn 1 in 5th place behind Kevin Hansen. Both jokered on lap 1 while Guerlain opted to take his second joker behind Timerzyanov on lap 2. At the joker lap merge, Timmy Hansen and Chicherit collided, but he managed to hold off the Swede to finish in 4th place.

Race 3 of Q4 saw Chicherit sandwiched between Liam Doran, Krisztián Szabó, Janis Baumanis, and Timmy Hansen. Following a great start, Chicherit got stuck in traffic with a little contact with Szabó, demoting him into 5th. As Szabó merged from the joker lap, the two collided. Szabó and Chicherit would both collide with the outside wall. The Frenchman managed to continue but lost a lot of time and qualified in 13th overall, just missing out on a spot in the semi-final.

“It was not an easy weekend for us, especially for me, as I was extremely unlucky from race 1, which followed me through the weekend," he said.

"It’s motorsport, of course, we have to focus on the positives - the competitive pace and ability we’ve shown this weekend as a team really gives us a good feeling for Silverstone. We can be in the top 5 in terms of pace, so we need to put it all together now to make that podium happen." 

The Frenchman heads to round four of the championship in the UK with some optimism.
"We’ve shown the potential of the car, now it’s time to push for the top in Silverstone,” he said.

TEXT - Junaid Samodien