Round 4 of the FIA World Rallycross Championship at Silverstone race circuit in England saw GC KOMPETITION introduce its two GCK Mégane R.S. RX to the 27,000-strong British crowd at the inaugural Speedmachine festival with Jérôme Grosset-Janin finishing in 4th in the semi-finals whilst Guerlain Chicherit missed out on the semi-finals finishing in 15th overall, having struggled with the launch set-up for all 4 qualifiers.
Changing weather on Saturday saw the quickly drying track result in decreasing race times as the various qualifying races went on and with Jérôme in race 1 and Guerlain in race 2, they had a way to fight back to make up time in the following qualifiers, finishing Q1 in 12th and 15th respectively. Q2 saw both GCK drivers struggle with bad starts having to fight through the field with Jérôme driving cleanly to strongly finish in 9th overall whilst Guerlain found himself in traffic remaining in 15th overall.
Jérôme found his rhythm on Sunday in Q3 on this newly built track in the British sunshine and pushed his Mégane R.S. RX to stay in 9th overall whilst Guerlain suffered another missed start, stalling, then fought his way back to finish 3rd in his race and 14th overall.
The final qualifier of the 4th FIA World Rallycross Championship at the world-famous F1 venue Silverstone had the crowds witness some incredible race action as some of the world’s best drivers fought for a place in the semi-finals on a hot, dry track.
Jérôme showcased his growing confidence as he put down a strong drive to finish in P6 in Q4 putting him in 10th overall, whilst Guerlain had a misstart and finished his race in P3 and the weekend in 15th overall.
Jérôme lined up on the inside of row 3 in the second semi-final against Sebastien Loeb, Mattias Ekström, Timmy Hansen, Niclas Grönholm and Timur Timerzyanov. After a good start, Jerôme worked his way to the inside of turn 1, where he fought back from position 6, managing to neatly overtake Timerzyanov in turn 1 of lap 5. He finished 4th behind Loeb, Ekström and Grönholm.
Guerlain Chicherit commented: “This weekend was a little frustrating for me as we’re trying to improve the launch set-up for consistant strong starts, however, Jérôme showed some strong driving against some of the world’s most experienced Rallycross drivers and it was great to race in front of our Prodrive home crowd – we both still have a bit of work to do to consistently perform in this environment and minimize mistakes, so we’re working hard to see us in the final again when you visit Hell in two weeks.”
Jérôme Grosset-Janin added: “Our weekend in Silverstone finished with a bang! Despite our suspension trouble in Q1 and Q2, our team put in a lot of good, hard work! The 4th best time achieved in the practice rounds prove that all of our work is paying off. Accomplishing a spot in the semi final was extremely gratifying, and we weren’t far off the final. I feel confident in the car and am happy with the evolution from race to race. Having the opportunity to meet English fans and the families of our Prodrive team was the cherry on top of a good weekend.”
Source: GCK
