Quali with only thousandths in it: Pole and podium at the Nürburgring
Pole position and podium at the Nürburgring: Lechner Huber Racing driver Jeffrey Schmidt once again demonstrated his affinity with the classic circuit in the Eifel. Saturday’s qualifying was just about as tight as it can get – the top seven in the first session were separated by a mere 0.076 seconds. Schmidt secured pole position for the Sunday race and P5 on the grid for Saturday. He narrowly missed out on the podium in the first race but made sure of it in the second. This was podium number three for the Swiss driver at the Nürburgring, a track where he traditionally does well – only the Hockenheimring has brought him more success.
Jeffrey, you secured your fifth pole position in the Porsche Carrera Cup yet could only manage to qualify fifth for the other race. What happened there?
Qualifying was amazing! I took pole position for the second race – it doesn’t get much better than that – but the contest for grid positions in the first race was far more exciting. The first seven drivers were separated by seven hundredths of a second. When you consider that the average lap time is around one minute 30 seconds, that may well have been a record. I was only 0.04 seconds off the fastest time, which placed me no higher than fifth on the grid.
In the first race, you battled you way forwards and at one point it looked like a podium was in reach…
The start was OK, even though I didn’t gain any positions at that stage. On the fourth lap, I got into the slipstream of the guy ahead and outbraked him. After that, I soon closed the gap on the two cars fighting for second and third place. I was unable to do any more at that point because we were lacking the necessary pace. On the last two laps, I got into a pretty cool fight with the third-placed Nick Yelloly, but it wasn’t what you might call a fair fight – he can be a ruthless opponent. On the last corner before the finish line, I lost a bit of momentum and almost missed out on fourth place. At the end, there were only 15 thousandths of a second separating me from the pursuing driver.
You started the second race from pole and finished as runner-up. Talk us through that.
I got off to a great start, defended well and tried to stay in front for as long as I could. But like most of the leading drivers, Michael Ammermüller, my team-mate in the Supercup, had fitted a new set of tyres. Consequently, it was only a matter of time before he would get past me. My strategy was just to keep pushing forward, because the drivers on fresh tyres behind were threatening to close the gap. But I stayed focused and controlled second place to the end without much of a problem.
You now have a one-month break from racing, but how much is the season finale already on your mind?
As a racing driver, of course, you always want to be in your car, so for that reason, I’m a bit sad that the season is almost over. The more races you compete in, the faster the year goes by, which gives you the impression it’s been a short one. As far as I’m concerned, I would happily enter more races, but I also have a lot to do at home. The university term starts soon – that’s going to keep me busy.
You’re back on the weekend of 14th – 16th October for the finale of the 2016 Carrera Cup at the Hockenheimring, the track where you traditionally do best.
I’m obviously looking forward to that immensely. I really like the Hockenheimring. I’ve finished the last six races there on the podium. We’ve kept an extra set of tyres for Hockenheim, because we obviously want to shine there and make it onto the top rung. The circuit is unique and suits my driving style very well. I’m hopeful of putting on a good show because I’m expecting a lot of fans to come from Switzerland.
