The racing debut of the Peugeot 208 GTI turned out to be very successful. At the opening round of the VLN endurance racing championship season at the Nürburgring, Stéphane Caillet (France), Michael Bohrer (Merzig/ Germany) and Jürgen Nett (Mayen/ Germany) celebrated the first class win for the new compact sports car from France. After 4:02:59.788 hours race time and 24 completed laps at the 24.358 kilometres long combination of the Nürburgring short version and the Nordschleife, the driver trio took the chequered flag with a big advance ahead of the competitors in their class.
Whilst the main issue for the 208 GTI was the preparation for the highlight of the season, the Nürburgring 24 Hour Race, and to further develop the race car, the eight drivers in the team Racing Experience had taken the start to gain experience at the Nordschleife. The crew with Gonzalo Martín de Andrés (Spain), Dominik Peitz (Delbrück/ Germany), Bradley Philpot (Great Britain) and Mathieu Sentis (France) hereby score the first victory in class SP2 in the almost series Peugeot 208. With 20 laps, the driver quartet completed one lap more than Giacomo Ricci (Italy), Christiaan Frankenhout (Netherlands), Johnny Niederhauser (Switzerland) and Vincent Radermecker (Belgium) in the sister car.
“That was an exciting race for our rookies”, said team manager Olivier Perez. “To manage the situation as newcomers in the strong field of the endurance racing series represents a great challenge which all of the eight drivers have coped with in a brilliant way. We will now focus on continuing consistently in the same manner in two weeks time.”
208 GTi: Big progress regarding handling
After their first laps at the Nordschleife in the 208 GTi during a test on the previous day, Caillet, Bohrer and Nett were highly impressed by the performance of the race car. There was, however, a little need to improve the handling. “The car was a bit too nervous at the Nordschleife”, said Bohrer. “But the experienced men from the Peugeot works staff have done a brilliant job over night and made a big step forwards in particular regarding suspension and aerodynamics. In the timed practice already, it became apparent that driving at the limits with the 208 GTi in the ‘Green Hell’ had become much more comfortable. This development is of great significance, in particular with regard to the 24h Race.”
