Karen Gaillard’s determined drive earns points at Spa, equals personal best in PCC France

In the third round of Porsche Carrera Cup France Karen Gaillard showcased great racecraft around Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, to equal her personal best in the series and scoring points in both races, overcoming early setbacks.

Photo credits: Iron Dames

In the third round of Porsche Carrera Cup France Karen Gaillard showcased great racecraft and impressive overtakes around Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, despite dealing with a foot injury.

During the first two rounds of the Porsche Carrera Cup France season Karen Gaillard gained valuable experience around some of the most important tracks in Southern Europe. Furthermore, she scored a rookie podium during the first race at the Dijon-Prenois circuit. In addition to her PCCF campaign, Gaillard competed in two rounds of Porsche Sprint Challenge Suisse with Proton Huber Competition, where she achieved a win and two podiums in Spielberg, after amazing battles up front. 

Unfortunately, since the PSCS round at the Red Bull Ring, Gaillard had been struggling with a foot injury, which forced her to change her driving style: "I had to adapt, to change my way of driving because I always break with my right foot", she explained at her previous race weekend in Red Bull Ring. "Now I had to change to the left because I got a bit injured in my right foot."

The first opportunity for Gaillard to drive around the 7.004 km Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in the Porsche Carrera Cup car came on Thursday, when the private test sessions were held. The Swiss driver completed 17 laps around the Belgian track, coming to grips with the Porsche machinery.

Sadly, the tests for Gaillard finished prematurely, as the Iron Dames driver had an incident during the second session. For the rest of the weekend, she had to use a spare car, without the famous pink Iron Dames livery. On Friday another set of training laps was completed, as Karen Gaillard took part in the free practice, where with every lap she was edging closer to other rookie competitors.

The first important session of the weekend, the qualifying, commenced at around 12:30 pm local time, and Karen Gaillard instantly got out on track. Her first flying lap put her in thirteenth, among other rookie drivers. On the next lap, she improved to a 2:22.532, but progress from other drivers pushed her down to P16. Halfway through the session Gaillard pitted for another set of tyres.

With eight minutes remaining, the Schumacher CLRT driver began another fast lap. She did not go any quicker that time, but a lap later she did a 2:21.719, which provisionally put her in P15, but after improvements from others she dropped to P16. During the last minute of qualifying Gaillard spun in the famous Bus Stop chicane, but fortunately was able to continue running, albeit she could not advance. She wrapped up the eventful session in P16, just 2.5 seconds off pole—demonstrating the competitiveness of the field.

Race one of the weekend began at 5 pm local time, and even before the start, drama happened at the front of the pack. Marvin Klein stopped in the Eau Rouge corner, causing an extra formation lap and, as a result, shortening the race to 27 minutes plus one lap. Gaillard started in P15, and she kept that place, despite being overtaken by Cyril Caillo, as her teammate, Chester Kieffer, spun in the Les Combes chicane. 

On lap 6, Kieffer overtook the Swiss driver in the first corner, but after the Luxembourger got past Caillo, the Iron Dames driver was able to follow her teammate, and get back to P15. This did not last long, as Caillo regained the position on lap 7, and with that order the drivers continued until the finish.

In the meantime, during the middle part of the race, several drivers ahead of Gaillard received penalties for leaving the track. When the race settled down for Gaillard, the safety car was deployed due to Éric Debard’s car stopping in turn 12. Marshals quickly cleared the Porsche, and the race resumed with one lap to go. The last lap shootout was very chaotic at the front, but in the midpack it played out smoothly, without major incidents. 

Karen Gaillard crossed the finish line in the same position as she qualified, but after the penalties were applied she was classified twelfth overall and fourth in the rookie class. Gaillard showcased her consistency amid numerous track-limit penalties for rivals, and that’s what allowed her to score a good number of points.

Gaillard was supposed to start the second race from P17 on Sunday morning, but Hugo Chevalier stopped on track on the reconnaissance lap to the grid, which allowed Karen to start from sixteenth. However, the start proved to be challenging, as after the first lap the young Swiss driver dropped two places. It did not last long though, because on lap 2 the Schumacher CLRT driver overtook Debard for P16, and on the next lap she went past Cyril Caillo for P15. She gained another position after the Estonian Alexander Reimann locked up in the Bus Stop chicane.

Her next target, Jérôme Boullery of Racing Technology, was nearly 10 seconds ahead of Gaillard, but it did not stop the Swiss from trying to get another position. Lap 8 saw a 5-second time penalty awarded to Boullery, which together with the Frenchman fighting for P12 with Mathys Cappuccio allowed Karen Gaillard to close in on him.

With every lap, she was getting closer to the back of Racing Technology’s Porsche; Gaillard, apart from trying to catch Boullery, had to defend from Caillo, but after he made a mistake on lap 12 she was able to escape from the French driver. Gaillard’s gap to Boullery on the last lap was 5.4 seconds, but it was not enough to be classified ahead of him. 

She finished the race in P14, with another two points scored in an amazing fashion, while driving with an injured foot. After a difficult start she was able to regain lost positions and battle for even more, missing out by less than a second.

The next occasion for Karen Gaillard to compete in the Porsche Carrera Cup France will come on 18–20 July, when the French one-make series will visit the Misano Circuit on the Adriatic coast of Italy.