A word from Laurens Vanthoor

You’ve won the Blancpain Endurance Series and the overall title in the Blancpain GT Series in the Audi R8 LMS ultra this year. In addition, you celebrated victories in the 24-hour race at Spa and in the season finale on the city street circuit in Baku for which prize money of 100,000 euros is awarded. Would you have dared to dream of such a season? I hadn’t expected this at the beginning of the season. It’s been the best year of my career so far. In the Blancpain Endurance Series, I had strong team-mates, we competed against high-caliber opponents and managed to win at Spa and at the Nürburgring. A fantastic season!

Did you have an especially outstanding moment this season?There were many great moments in this season. A particularly important success was the victory in the 24-hour race at Spa together with René (Rast) and Markus (Winkelhock) because in my opinion this is the most important GT race and it’s my home round. The success in the season finale in Baku was very valuable for me too. In the Blancpain Sprint Series, with César (Ramos), I took the pole position three times and won the qualification race four times. In the finale – which was the season’s major race – we finally managed to win the main race too, as well as the overall Blancpain GT title.

People in your team are saying that detailed analyses after each race are your strength. What is special about your preparation and follow-up? I’m intensely focused on details. I always try and do everything as perfectly as possible and to prepare myself as best I can. This concerns my work as well as the work of the team. For some people, this may be a bit of a pain in the neck but it makes all of us move forward …

What makes the Audi R8 LMS ultra so powerful? The Audi R8 LMS ultra is one of the most successful GT3 race cars. It’s very versatile and fast on any type of track. The fact that it’s being fielded by strong teams that operate very professionally is, no doubt, another success factor. In addition, Audi Sport customer racing offers the teams very good support.

The run in the GT Cup in Macau was your last racing commitment this season. What is on your agenda between now and Christmas? I’ve still got a few track tests coming up in December. And after this fantastic season, I’d also like to take a few days of vacation.

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