Laura van den Hengel shines in qualifying, misfortune takes all-female Mertel duo out of both races

Laura van den Hengel and Alba Vazquez faced a challenging weekend at Circuit Paul Ricard, marred by technical issues that prevented them from finishing either race – although Van den Hengel’s strong qualifying performance in second place was the highlight that shows a big step forward.

Photo by: Racers - Behind the Helmet

Laura van den Hengel and Alba Vazquez endured a challenging weekend at Circuit Paul Ricard, home of the fourth race meeting of the GT Cup Open Europe season, as the all-female Mertel Motorsport duo were unable to finish either race due to a series of technical issues and misfortunes.

Despite limited track time in practice, the highlight of their weekend was Van den Hengel's first qualifying session on Saturday, which put the #83 white and turquoise Ferrari 488 Challenge in second place in class and inside the overall top ten – marking the team's best qualifying effort to date. However, an endless streak of bad luck first eliminated the duo from the first race due to a gearbox issue, which continued to plague the Mertel Ferrari on Sunday, ultimately forcing them to sit out the second race entirely.

The fourth round at the famous circuit in the South of France followed a very positive outing by Van den Hengel and Vazquez at Spa Francorchamps, where they had secured their first-ever top five finish in the AM class in the championship, continuing the steady progress made since the start of the season.

The two drivers had often shown potential to reach the class podium and the top ten overall straight from the first rounds, but couldn't quite capitalize on their speed due to a few unfortunate circumstances, having collected a personal best of seventh before the Belgian round, which marked another big step forward.

At Le Castellet, Van den Hengel also returned to the place that saw her debut in the series last year – after an impressive jump from karting to GT racing. Additionally, a test session at the track in the build-up to the race gave the Dutchwoman crucial experience to tackle the weekend, highlighting how extra track time experience directly translated into performance gain.

"Testing changes the whole story massively because now I was fighting for the top three positions and also being close with the Pro-Am class, so that's a massive, massive change," Van den Hengel commented, as her pace at Paul Ricard immediately proved top three-worthy.

A few raindrops appeared during the first practice on Friday; Alba Vazquez started the session and set a time of 2:13.916 before handing over to Laura Van den Hengel, who only completed a handful of laps at the end of the session. In the second session, Vazquez started again, but a rear suspension issue soon halted the #83 Ferrari, resulting in no driving time for Van den Hengel.

However, the duo bounced back in FP3: with a solid run, Laura placed the car second in class and fourth overall after a qualifying simulation in only three timed laps. Alba took over midway through the session; while she couldn’t improve the lap time, they finished P3 in AM and P5 overall in one of their strongest sessions to date.

"That was my only proper free practice", Van den Hengel explained. "I got three laps to do like a qualifying stint, and that went okay", she continued.

"It was okay, but it wasn't as fast as I would like to. I made some mistakes in the laps and I didn't do what I can do on new tyres. So overall, I had eight laps for practice before going into qualifying."

Photo by: Racers - Behind the Helmet

On Saturday morning Van den Hengel would have to put her learnings into practice during her qualifying session. With only a couple of push laps available, she delivered: by clocking a 2:08.365, the Dutch racer fired into P2 in class and inside the overall top ten, showcasing her speed.

"That was okay", Laura summed up, who like every competitive driver always has the highest expectations from herself. "It was an okay pace, but it was not quite as fast as I can show, so I wasn't really fully satisfied".

"If you can compare it with the other races and other qualifyings, I made a lot of progress, but still I know that I can do better. However, I'm mostly better at racing than in qualifying, so I was excited about the race."

Strong of a positive run, Laura Van den Hengel knew that she had good race pace and, in charge of the first stint, she entered the first race in the afternoon with high hopes.

When the lights went out, Laura had a brilliant getaway, navigating a few cars taking the escape route at turn 1, and moved up one position to ninth overall and second in class.

Fernando Navarrete led both the AM class and overall after the first couple of corners, although he had to give up the position for cutting the first corner.

Laura, meanwhile, immediately started to make up more positions and moved up the order, picking up one position on the #53 Porsche at turn 4. However, her #83 Ferrari 488 Challenge soon started to struggle with gearbox issues.

Despite trying to hang on, Laura inevitably began to fall down the order and brought the car back to the pits at the end of the second lap. The team sent her back out while still on the lead lap, although now P12 in class and P23 overall.

Still suffering from the issues, Laura pushed through and ran at a 2:10 pace, making up over 10 seconds per lap to the car ahead.

She passed Jim Michaelian’s GDL Porsche on lap 5 and aimed for the Pro-Am Porsche 992 GT3 Cup of Stefano Zerbi, almost 40 seconds ahead. Undeterred, Laura picked up the rhythm while still struggling with the gearbox, almost halving the gap as the pit window opened.

Van den Hengel’s stint went a few laps longer, and she eventually pitted on lap 12, with Alba Vazquez set to take over. Unfortunately, another technical issue during the pit stop meant that Vazquez couldn’t venture out on track, leading to the #83 Ferrari's retirement midway through the race.

It was a frustrating end to an otherwise positive day, as Van den Hengel had shown plenty of pace in a remarkable qualifying and posted the 6th fastest lap of the race in the AM class despite the gearbox issues – showcasing how she would have been clearly in contention for the podium. Still, the Mertel Motorsport all-female team showed potential to fight at the front of the AM class, and on Sunday, they aimed to capitalize on their pace.

"The start went fairly well, I already gained a position, was still fighting, and then the gearbox issues came and we had to pit", Laura said. "I could continue, but it was not fast.

So that was disappointing. And then some other technical issues came in the pit and we couldn't finish our race."

Photo credits: GT Cup Open Europe

Alba Vazquez took over driving duties for the second qualifying on Sunday morning. Despite feeling unwell, she managed to get a few good laps in and qualified P10 in AM, with the car again suffering from recurring gearbox issues.

The team worked hard to solve the problem and fully change the gearbox, but the short time gap to race 2 meant that the car couldn’t be ready in time for the start.

It was a disappointing weekend with plenty of bad luck in most sessions. However, Van den Hengel's qualifying performance clearly showed her pace and potential.

"Race two was only the qualifying for Alba, which put us in 10th position in class, and we couldn't race at all because the gearbox kept failing", Laura continued. "That was heartbreaking because I was finally in a good pace, I was finally fighting for a podium. And I think we could actually do a podium because the pace was so good. I finally showed what I'm capable of."

This crucial step forward is nevertheless very encouraging for the next rounds, as the series heads to circuits where she has either raced or tested before. With a few more testing opportunities, the Dutch racer is clearly going to be a contender for podiums in class as she continues to close the gaps to most Pro-Am cars.

"I have to be more sharp in qualifying, I was not flawless, and I need to be flawless and more focused under pressure because you have only two laps and when your tyres are at their peak, it's just one lap", she said, identifying the areas she wants to focus on going forward. "So you have to put everything in one lap."

"The positive side is that I'm capable of doing it because the lap was okay, although not 100% yet. I was on the level as most of the pros at that point, but it has to be even sharper."

"It's a big learning curve and I think I will practice it on the sim to perform under pressure as well as under endurance to keep the tyres clean, being within a few tenths of a second for a half hour or an hour. That's my next goal, to learn and improve that."

The next round will be in Barcelona, where Laura Van den Hengel and Alba Vazquez had a very positive pre-season test.

The fifth round of the GT Cup Open Europe is scheduled for 27-29 September at Circuit de Catalunya.