Lohéac, Brittany (France) — Sunday 6 September 2015; Albatec Racing reaffirmed its status as a front-running team with a consistent performance in the Bretagne World RX of France in Lohéac this weekend. Despite a constant pace across the weekend that saw Yvan Muller and Jérôme Grosset-Janin in the top ten in three of the four qualifying heats, the Albatec duo was unfortunately denied the opportunity to progress to the semi finals with its pair of Peugeot 208 RX Supercars.
After a solid opening heat that saw Euro RX title contender Jérôme fifth fastest overall, and Yvan an impressive eighth quickest in his very first RX heat, it was the second race on Saturday that proved the thorn in the side of the Scottish team and its French aces. A left front puncture on lap two ended Jérôme’s charge while running well within the top ten overall, while contact with Toomas Heikkinen pitched four-time World Touring Car Champion Yvan into a spin in his race, dropping him down the overall order.
A determined and solid performance across Sunday’s final two qualifiers saw Yvan tenth fastest in heat three, after leading 2013 French champion Jérôme home to a thrilling Albatec 1-2, while Jérôme finished tenth overall in the final heat. However, they were unable to pull back the points deficit ahead of the crucial qualifying, finishing 14th and 19th of the 37-car entry.
Despite the unlucky finish to a weekend that promised so much, the Dumfries outfit will resume its bid for European title honours in Barcelona in two weeks time with renewed enthusiasm, where James Grint joins Jérôme for round four of the FIA European Rallycross Championship.
Andy Scott, Albatec Racing Team Principal :
“Unfortunately we didn’t make the cut to reach the semi finals this weekend, but I think both our drivers demonstrated their capabilities, and reinforced the pace and performance of the Albatec Peugeot 208s. If you’d applied an average position to them for the second heat, where they both had their troubles yesterday, we’d have had both Jérôme and Yvan easily qualify to the semi finals. We were consistently in the top ten in the races where we didn’t have a problem.
“Naturally it’s the not the way we wanted to end the day, but the cars have been competitive all weekend, and it’s a continuation of all the hard work everyone’s put into the cars this year, and I think everyone in the paddock is now recognising Albatec Racing as a team to be respected.”
Yvan Muller #168:
“I think rallycross is pretty good, it’s a good atmosphere, and there is a lot of freedom. I liked it especially as it’s something I didn’t know and there are 
plenty of things to learn. The trouble is when you still have a lot of things to learn and you’re racing at this level, it’s quite complicated. But we showed the Albatec cars are capable of being in the top ten, there are still some things to improve, to optimise, in myself as well, in fact more in myself than anything else!
“But it was an interesting weekend. The biggest challenge was to understand how to drive exactly, you know when you’re testing you drive on your own level, you don’t know what the others are doing so now I know a bit more. I understand more how the tyres are working, how much to attack, and which way we have to work on the car to gain some speed. And which way I have to work to gain more time with my driving style. I think right now we have the potential to gain between three and five tenths of a second a lap, easily!”
Jérôme Grosset-Janin #74:
“I was happy with our pace on Saturday, in practice and in the first heat, I was happy with the car, and happy to be racing at the level I was, and to win the battle with Davy [Jeanney]. The second race started well, I had a good joker lap, but then got a puncture.
“Today was good because we had a good heat this morning with Yvan, where we raced together, and heat four was fast. I felt good, the car had very good balance and we had good pace all weekend. Unfortunately at this level of competition, which was very, very high this weekend, with a lot of drivers, every mistake costs a lot, and unfortunately we didn’t reach the semi finals. OK we have the car, the team, the pace, and after everything else, those final little things are just motorsport.”
