Esteban Masson forced to retire at Spa: "Two pole positions lost in a row, it hurts"

The scenario is cruel, and it's repeating itself. Just like in the previous round, Esteban Masson and his crew had secured pole position only to see their race end before the finish. This time, it was a gearbox problem—the car stuck in first gear exiting the first corner—that ruined what looked like a strong performance. After such a disappointment, Esteban Masson doesn't downplay the pain of this repetition: "Losing two pole positions in a row hurts in an eight-race championship. As we know, every point counts."

Until the incident, the race had been well managed. Tom Van Rompuy had maintained his position well from pole position, despite a penalty for exceeding track limits. Hadrien David had held third place throughout his stint. Esteban Masson then fiercely defended his position at the restart against the professional drivers. "I battled with all the pros at the restart, I gave everything I had to maintain the position, I think we had a great stint." Then the problem appeared. "We tried everything, everything we could in the car, but we couldn't find a solution."

Reliability, a recurring Achilles' heel

The Frenchman points to a worrying trend: two races, two mechanical problems, despite a car that regularly shows itself to be among the fastest in qualifying. "It's motorsport, it's true the car is quite old, but other cars are too and still manage to finish the races." He emphasizes the difficulty in anticipating these failures while refusing to use them as an excuse: "I hope this will be the last time."

Regarding pure performance, Esteban Masson remains convinced that the potential was there to reach the podium, or even better: "I think we could have fought for a podium finish. It could have been a good top 5 at least, and we were in contention for the podium." He also specifies that the hot conditions at Spa accentuated the degradation of the tires on the Lexus, and that the hard tire would have been more suitable for their car — without making it an excuse for the poor performance.

Before concluding on a future-oriented note, the French driver, who will not be at Le Mans, hopes that the team will face the major classic without him on a better footing: "I think the team has everything it needs to do well. We need to regroup, review everything that could have been done better today, and everything that was done well." See you in Le Mans for Lexus, from June 10 to 14, and from Sao Paulo for Esteban Masson, on July 12.

Interview by Valentin Glo, in Spa.

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