So after constant problems at Brands Hatch the team headed to Austria for the third round at the Redbull Ring. We managed to set the fastest times in both free practices, with the Pro drover Andy Merick. Stephen Patrick was hot on his heals and gaining speed with each outing.
In qualifying we managed to pick up a penalty of ‘drop 3 places on the grid’ due to missing a stop go after we had entered the pits and stoped running. So we did not start from pole, (fastest time) but forth on the grid. Andy did pick up a new watch from the new sponsor for getting the fastest time.
For the first race Andy started and managed to get ahead of the pack and was leading the class for a while, after the driver change we got a stop go penalty (just under a second too quick leaving the pitlane) when Steve had served this we were back in about 12th Steve battled through the field getting to 3rd in class. Only to be disappointed a few hours later due to a technical infringement which meant the car was too low so we got disqualified.
Putting the disqualification behind us, we were starting near the back of the field due to a 5 place grid drop for injuring a mechanic at brands (me). Steve started the stint and was quickly making up places from 27th to 18th then a mistake on track dropped him back to 21st he again climbed back up the order and when we changed drivers this time, Andy was ready to take on the challenge of the deficit to p1 in class of 30 seconds. Andy battled heroicly through the field and managed to get to second in class with about 4 minutes of the session left. The decision was made to hold station there as we may be able to catch first in class, but with the time left not be able to pass, so we managed to bring the car home in second place in class and a very happy team.
Next race for the McLaren is the Slovak ring in July, though next week we are out at Almería for the Hyundai copa.