Interview
Van Hoepen praises TRIDENT’s pace after comeback drive in Barcelona
Laurens van Hoepen produced a comeback drive to remember in the Barcelona Feature Race, going from P13 to fifth on Sunday.
The TRIDENT driver and his teammate John Bennett were amongst a group that missed out on completing their final lap after Ritomo Miyata’s off at the last corner caused a Red Flag.
This left Van Hoepen and Bennett starting further down the order than they would have liked.
However, the Dutchman was in impressive form, using the alternative strategy – starting on the Hard tyres and ending on the Softs – to good effect.
“I mean, I’m very happy with the race,” said Van Hoepen. “The pace was really strong, so just a bit of a shame to start so far back because also in qualifying we had very good pace.
“But the Red Flag of course stopped me from improving on my second lap while I was in the fight for pole, P2, P3. So I am happy and just ready to go again in Red Bull Ring.”
Talking about the strategy, Van Hoepen says he knew that starting on the Hard tyres would make for a difficult opening few laps, with the drivers on the faster softs looking to make moves.
However, the 20-year-old is happy with the patience he showed early on, before flying through the field on the Softs late on.
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“It was a bit difficult in the beginning keeping the option tyres behind,” said Van Hoepen. “But we knew that and I think we chose a really good strategy in the end.
“The pace, especially in the final parts of the race was so much quicker than everybody, it was just so much easier to make the overtakes which was just really nice.”
Van Hoepen not only showed his pace but also his overtaking prowess, and at one stage he pulled of a double move on Cian Shields and Sebastián Montoya at Turn 12.
“There were quite a few but I think the one where I took two guys in one corner, like around the outside that was pretty good,” said Van Hoepen.
“I think those ones were really special. So I’m happy with that.”
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Next up for Van Hoepen, TRIDENT and the rest of the paddock is a trip to the Austrian hills with Spielberg set to host Round 6.
For the Dutchman, the main focus at the Red Bull Ring will be to get Qualifying right, so that they can make use of their strong race pace.
“I’m looking forward to trying to get back on track,” added Van Hoepen. “We can go back fighting for a good qualifying position and then fight from there.”