Panis: “A magnificent experience”

After the 24 Hours of Le Mans and a round of the French FFSA GT3 championship at Val de Vienne, Olivier Panis headed to the Paul-Ricard HTTT circuit to take part in the fourth round of the FIA ​​GT1 championship. For the occasion, the Grenoblois shared the wheel of the No. 6 Ford GT Matech with the Swiss Natacha Gachnang.

And even if the weekend was not exceptional in terms of results, the winner of the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix admits to having greatly appreciated this freelancing.

?First of all, I would really like to thank the team, "He said. I had a very good weekend here. The championship is really beautiful, the team is really excellent and professional. Now we need to work and improve. During these two races, we were not very lucky. I was stuck at the start, but even paying attention to the degradation of my tires, I was able to easily get back on the others and even overtake some of them. Being 18th doesn't make it any easier for us to get back to the top of the rankings. Regardless, it was a wonderful experience, and we will do better next time. »

Eighteenth in the qualifying race on Saturday, the Panis-Gachnang duo was forced to retire the next day following a clutch problem.

“It was a difficult race, deplores Gachnang. TFirst of all, Olivier was hampered by other drivers at the start. In the pits, we had a transmission problem. It was very hard to leave the pit lane as I couldn't engage 1st gear. The best thing to do was to give up. »

Will we see Olivier Panis make another appearance in the discipline between now and the end of the year? From next week, in Portimao, the Oreca driver will in any case get back behind the wheel of his Peugeot 908 HDi FAP n°4 during the third round of the 2010 Le Mans Series.

Find the full report of the French round of the FIA ​​GT1 world championship in your AUTOhebdo magazine, on newsstands tomorrow.