A major threshold was crossed by Hexis in Belgium on the occasion of the second round of the FIA GT1
World Championship. The two McLarens finished both meet races well placed. The team is clearly working
with good sense and is advancing resolutely in the right direction!
Hindered by electric and Turbo problems during the tests, on Saturday, team Hexis was then back to
reliability and the two McLaren MP4-12C GT3s roared away from 10th and 16th places on the starting
grid of the first race. Despite a departure with rain tyres, Stef Dusseldorp and Alvaro Parente got into
‘attack’ mode and climbed up in the standings. Fred Makowiecki took the scalp of a few contenders to
finish 4th, in other words six places better compared with the start for car number one. He also clinched
the 2nd race time. Despite leaving the track a bit, Greg Dumoustier came 10th with a net improvement of five rows for car number two.
On Sunday, intermittent rain caused more than one team manager on the grid to hesitate, but it was once
again with cut tyres that the 17 cars took the start of the championship race. 5th in the first laps, Fred progressed in the leading pack and kept 4th place till the change of driver. In the other McLaren, Greg was just as convincing and managed to stay 6th placed for a long time. Once in the car, Stef, fought like a lion to
withstand the return of the Audi that won in Nogaro and car number one crossed the line in 5th place.
Alvaro also finished at top speed seventh placed, less than three seconds from the sister car.
The declared goal of team Hexis was to reach the arrival line, so that was achieved in style despite the many
traps that lay in store. That was enough to delight team manager Philippe Dumas… ‘This almost ideal result is exactly what we hoped for and what we needed. We mustn’t forget we are in a total development phase.
We have really improved the car. We must now stabilise our achievements and continue improving the car’s
reliability.’ Next event in Navarra for the third round on 26 and 27 May!
