The European Le Mans Series season has started in the best possible way for Joel Camathias: at Silverstone, in the season-opener, the Swiss driver has conquered an excellent podium finish, taking second at the wheel of the Porsche 911 RSR shared with team mates Christian Ried and Matteo Cairoli.
It has been a faultless race for the trio of Proton Competition, in a weekend made difficult, in the LMGTE category, by the obvious supremacy of the Aston Martins, clearly advantaged by a the Balance of Performance (the system aimed at balancing the performances of all cars) applied at the beginning of the season. Thanks to an excellent strategy and the good pace of the three drivers, the Proton Porsche has been the only car able to give some concerns to the Astons, managing to finish in-between the two British cars.
The next ELMS event, the 4 Hours of Monza, will take place on 14th May.
Joel Camathias:
“It has been an excellent start of the season and a podium finish that we can be proud of, given how things presented themselves this weekend. Since free practice, the Astons seemed to fly, beating everyone else by more than two seconds. We have focused on doing our set-up work and took fourth-fastest in qualifying. In the race, we proved more competitive, running always in the top three and reducing the gap from the Astons. The team designed a race strategy that worked nicely, with perfect pit stops, and all three drivers were able to keep a fast and consistent pace. I did the central double stint and Matteo, in the final stint, was able to steal second from the competition. Good team work, for sure, but we hope that the Balance of Performance will be corrected before the next round, at Monza, which is home race for Matteo and me…”
