Duerksen confident victory is possible at ‘historic’ Spa-Francorchamps

Joshua Duerksen says he and Invicta Racing must put it all together this weekend if they have a chance to win at Spa-Francorchamps.

The Paraguayan driver and his team are preparing to go racing at Round 8 of the season, and speaking ahead of the action getting started, he spoke off his delight at racing around the Belgian venue.

“To be honest, I’m very excited,” said Duerksen. “Spa is always an amazing track to drive, with all the high-speed corners and the history, it automatically makes me very excited.

“I'm just looking forward to giving my best and to enjoy this amazing track as much as possible.”

When asked what the keys to success are around Spa, Duerksen responded: “It's going to be very important to get a clean lap in because the lap is very long. It's almost a two-minute lap and it's seven kilometres long.

“We also have a lot of corners here, so the target will just be to have a clean lap because if you do that you will be in a good position because it's very easy to lose lap time here.

“I think if you lose lap time in one corner, this will have big consequences because we have also long straights and you carry all of this momentum then into the straight. If you get a good exit, you can gain a lot there. If you don't have such a good corner, you will lose all of this momentum.

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“So for me, it's going to be very important just to have a clean lap and have a decent lap and then for sure, we will be up there.”

Duerksen is aiming to return to the top after what has been a difficult first half of the season.

Since the 22-year-old’s victory at the Melbourne Sprint Race at the opening round, he has not been back on the podium.

In the six rounds since, Duerksen’s best finish came in the Monte Carlo Sprint, where he finished fourth, and he hopes that Spa will be the venue that sees him return to his winning form.

“We have had a very unfortunate start of the season,” he said. “But now we are sort of catching back. To be honest, we have always had very good pace these past few weekends. It's just that we didn't put it all together.

“That's what I'm looking forward now for this race weekend, to have consistent pace and to be able to have a good weekend where I can finally score all the points that we deserve with the pace we will have.”

Weather forecasts for the weekend are quite mixed, with there being a chance of rain and sunshine across the three days of running.

Duerksen is not too worried about what conditions he will face, calling both “very fun and exciting for racing.” His main focus is executing his weekend to the best of his abilities to get back on the top step.

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“I just need to get it all together,” said Duerksen. “I know we have the potential. I know we have the speed. We just need to package it all together.

“So if I manage that this weekend, in qualifying and in the races, then I'm very sure I can get that win.”