Eduardo ‘Dudu’ Barrichello has expressed his frustration after the Michelin GT Challenge held on Sunday, where a key penalty in the closing laps against his teammate, Tom Gamble, cost the Heart of Racing team a chance at victory in the GTD category.
With only six minutes remaining in the race at Virginia International Raceway, the #27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of the Heart of Racing team was involved in an intense battle for the lead with the #57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Philip Ellis. Ellis executed a risky maneuver to overtake Gamble, but in the next sequence of corners, the two vehicles collided.
Even so, Gamble ceded the position to Ellis shortly after, which did not stop the IMSA Race Control from imposing a penalty of a pit stop to the #27. Barrichello, reflecting on the tense final moments and the tire degradation conditions, expressed his opinion on the severity of the sanction.
“It’s hard to say because the degradation is so high and the cars become very difficult to handle at the end,” Barrichello commented. “At the end of the race, you’re really trying to give it your all. Emotions running high. I think Tom realized that his maneuver wasn’t the best, so he ceded the position, trying to play fair. But instead, we received a penalty that I consider excessive. The other vehicle didn’t even go off track.”
As a result of this penalty, Barrichello and Gamble finished fourth, a result that seriously affects their championship campaign. Barrichello arrived at the race as the points leader in the GTD category, but now he is third, 56 points behind the new leaders, Ellis and Russell Ward, who are the defending champions of the category.
This result marks a continuation of the difficulties for the Heart of Racing team, which started the season with high expectations. Since their last podium appearance in early May at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, they have not been able to regain their rhythm.
“It’s obvious that it’s a tough moment,” Barrichello asserted. “We’ve been having trouble finding a rhythm. At the start of the season, we did a good job with several podium appearances at Daytona and Sebring and Laguna. Right now we’re struggling with many penalties and we don’t know exactly what’s been happening for several races. We were hoping this would be the race that got us back in shape, not to win, but to get on the podium and recover our rhythm.”
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
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