Two top-five finishes at Lausitzring Motorsport Festival
Jeffrey Schmidt with the Porsche Carrera Cup at the German motor racing highlight of the year! The 22-year old lined up at the Lausitzring Motor Sport Festival last weekend. For Schmidt, though, things at this major event did not look too good initially. Suffering with his health, the Lechner Huber Racing driver still managed to qualify on the second row in both races. The Swiss driver racked up 22 important championship points with two fifth places despite feeling weakened by flu.
Jeffrey, you’ve done magnificently well this weekend despite a bout of flu. You qualified in fourth place twice.
Yes, although I have to say, I’m not altogether happy with things. Racing at the Lausitzring is always very close. I missed pole position last year by only four hundredths. We were a bit further away this time. A deficit of two-and-a-half tenths of a second can soon drop you several positions down the field. I wasn’t on top form this weekend, which is why I lost as much as two tenths per lap. I already had a cold when I arrived and felt really weak after the race.
How did the first race go?
The start itself was okay. I wanted to get into a good position for the first turn and went around the outside of my team-mate. That would have worked in essence, but another driver who had left the track rejoined the circuit directly in front of me. I had to brake hard to avoid a contact, and that allowed two cars to slip past me. I dropped from third place down to fifth, which wasn’t ideal. It was tricky after that, because overtaking in a Cup car at the Lausitzring is nigh on impossible. A good qualifying is more than half the story. You’re practically three-quarters of the way there.
You were again fifth in the second race.
I used a different strategy at the start this time. I wanted to nip past the guy in front of me on the inside, which nearly worked. I remained within striking distance of the driver in third place. However, another car came off the track a little later and threw piles of gravel up on to the track. The driver in front of me suddenly braked hard at that point. While he was able to take evasive action, I drove clean through the middle of the gravel and just managed to prevent the car from spinning. However, that enabled my team-mate to slip past me.
We’re now half-way through the Porsche Carrera Cup season. How would you rate your progress so far?
We’ve not lived up to our expectations. We were optimistic after the tests earlier this year when we were very fast and everything went smoothly, but then I was forced to retire in the very first race after a no-fault collision with a guest starter. We never really got into gear after that. The win at Hockenheim put the wind in our sails. We were really strong there. We’re not where we should be in the championship. Still, I’m sure we can catch up in the second half of the season.
You are on a tight schedule in the run-up to the next race at the Norisring, so you’ve got no time for a proper summer break?
No, no question of a summer break at all really. The very first thing I must do is prepare for some university exams, plus, a major event with many of my long-term partners is in the offing. And in between everything that’s happening, I’m off to Monza for a two-day Porsche Supercup test, so there’s absolutely no chance of me getting bored, definitely not!
