Blancpain

06

Oct 2017

Christodoulou caps Blancpain GT season with top-five finish

Posted By Adam Christodoulou / Blancpain, Endurance, Race Update / AMG, Blancpain, Career / No Comments

Adam Christodoulou scored the best result of his Blancpain GT Series career with a fine fifth place finish in the final race of the year at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain.

Sharing the No. 4 Mercedes-AMG Team Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Yelmer Buurman and Luca Stolz, Christodoulou put a season of bad luck behind him to register his second points score in as many rounds, after a gutsy drive to eighth in the Spa 24 Hours in July.

The 28-year-old Briton enjoyed a fraught battle with fellow AMG factory driver Maxi Buhk over fourth position for the duration of his stint, but despite losing out to the German on the final lap, was delighted to end the year with his best result of the season.

“Of course Paul Ricard would have been better as we were set for a podium there until the driveshaft went, but it was really good to finish off on a high and have a weekend where things went our way,” reflected Christodoulou.

“It was a fun race, but that one hour stint felt like three! I have to admit that I’m a little disappointed to have lost fourth on the last lap, but in general, our pace all weekend was very positive.”
In damp, overcast conditions atypical for the Spanish Grand Prix venue, Stolz topped the first qualifying group, while Christodoulou improved to go second in his session. When the track was at its fastest in Q3, Buurman was delayed by traffic, but still managed an excellent 10th in the 49-car field.

With the track fully dry for the start, the Dutchman made a good getaway to run seventh on the opening lap, despite contact from Marco Seefried’s Jaguar that forced him to run wide at turn four. Due to a Stuart Leonard’s Audi bottling up the pack, Buurman had to balance his designs on sixth place with a wary eye on his mirrors, but Black Falcon cleverly optimised the strategy by pitting the car on lap 27, enabling Stolz to emerge in clear air and undercut his rivals on fresh rubber.

Having vaulted up to fifth, the German capitalised on a mistake from Will Stevens’ Audi at the turn nine hairpin to take fourth before handing over to Christodoulou for the final dash to the finish.
The Briton initially held ambitions of taking third away from champion-elect Mirko Bortolotti’s Lamborghini, but a few laps stuck in traffic allowed Borolotti to make a break and Buhk’s identical Mercedes-AMG GT3 to close in. The two cars circulated as one for the final half hour, but Christodoulou’s hopes of fourth were dashed on the final lap when traffic allowed Buhk to sneak by.

“It’s always better to be the chasing car when you’re in traffic as the lead car has to slow down and anticipate what the backmarkers are going to do,” explained Christodoulou.

“Unfortunately I just made the wrong decision of where to overtake them, but that’s how it goes sometimes when the field is so closely matched, you don’t get a moment to relax. It’s definitely been a testing season for us, but we showed that when things go our way, we can be really strong.
“The pitstops were absolutely nailed perfectly and everybody on the team did a great job to move us forward five spots from where we started. I’d like to offer my thanks to everyone at Mercedes-AMG Team Black Falcon for their hard work all season and I’m already looking forward to coming back next year to fight for our first Blancpain GT Series win.”

Christodoulou’s next race will be his first competitive outing in the new Mercedes-AMG GT4 at the Spa 2x6H next weekend (October 7-8).

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10

Jul 2017

Christodoulou nets P7 from British GT at Spa

Posted By Adam Christodoulou / Blancpain, Endurance / Blancpain, Career / No Comments

Adam Christodoulou came away with a seventh place finish from his second outing for Team ABBA with Rollcentre Racing, as the British GT Championship headed to Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.

The world-famous 7.004 kilometre circuit welcomed British GT’s biggest GT3 grid of the season, with several additional entries from the Blancpain GT Series using the event as a warm-up for the Spa 24 Hours later this month.
Sharing the No. 88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Richard Neary, Christodoulou hoped to put the knowledge gained from participating in Tuesday’s official Spa 24 Test Day with AMG Team Black Falcon to good use and duly delivered, as he fought through the order from eleventh to seventh in race one.

Two lengthy safety cars limited Neary to just two racing laps in his opening stint, but taking over the reins at the beginning of the pit window, Christodoulou made good progress through the pack. Just three seconds covered second through to seventh positions at the flag, with the Englishman just a couple of car-lengths behind the TF Sport Aston Martin which won the two-hour race last year.

28-year-old Christodoulou felt there was more to be found in race two, this time starting from seventh, but didn’t get a chance to show it after becoming embroiled in a first lap incident. The Mercedes-AMG GT3 was hit from behind at Les Combes by a car outside the parameters of the track, then T-boned by an unsighted car behind. The contact broke the upright, leaving him unable to make it back to the pits without causing further damage.
With many of the frontrunners hitting trouble, Christodoulou was left to rue a missed opportunity to give Team ABBA with Rollcentre Racing a first British GT podium.

“It was a bitter pill to swallow because I really thought that could have been a good result,” he said.

“Race one went okay, the car was handling nicely and I was able to do Eau Rouge flat-out consistently. We were in the fight for sixth at the end, but I think there was more there for us in race two.

“It was very hectic at the start with everybody jostling for position. I managed to get down the inside of the AMD car, but the next thing I knew I was tagged into a spin and the Lamborghini just had nowhere to go.

“It’s a shame for the guys after the hard work they put in to prepare the car and for Richard as well, because it meant he only was only able to get two racing laps in due to the safety cars in race one.”
Despite the disappointing end to the weekend, the 2016 Nürburgring 24 Hour winner welcomed the opportunity to race at Spa just three weeks before the jewel in the crown of the Blancpain Endurance Cup, where Christodoulou will again team up with AMG Team Black Falcon team-mates Yelmer Buurman and Luca Stolz.

“It’s always good to race at a track before you go there for a huge event, it just means that I’ve worked a little bit with the setup and even on one or two bits of the circuit, which should be fresh in my head when I come back,” he said.

“As with any 24 hour race, it will be about surviving, so any opportunity to get reacquainted with the circuit and do some laps can only be a good thing – hopefully it will give me a little advantage!”
The next round of the British GT Championship is back on UK soil at Brands Hatch 5th and 6th August . It will be Christodoulou’s first time racing on the historic Grand Prix circuit since his championship-winning Formula Renault UK 2.0 campaign in 2008, but he is optimistic that the recent form of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the Blancpain Sprint Cup and co-driver Neary’s rate of improvement in their first time racing as a pair will present their best chance yet of securing a podium finish.

“We’ve definitely made progress, it’s been fun improving the car and the setup and working with Richard to try to get more out of him,” Christodoulou continued.
“In the end, Richard managed to go about two seconds faster than he did last year during his qualifying, that’s the quickest he’s ever actually made his way around there which obviously bodes well for the rest of the season, starting at Brands Hatch.

“I’m looking forward to being back racing in the UK, particularly on the Grand Prix circuit with so many challenging corners. I’ve never raced a GT3 around there before, but the AMG proved to be one of the top cars during the Blancpain Sprint race in May, so I’m hoping to have the same kind of performance when we’re there.”

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26

Jun 2017

Strong Performance Ends in Heartbreak for Christodoulou in Paul Ricard 1000km

Posted By Adam Christodoulou / AMG, Blancpain, Endurance / Blancpain, Career, news / No Comments

Adam Christodoulou missed out on his best-ever finish in the Blancpain GT Series when mechanical problems struck his No. 4 AMG Team Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG with 30 minutes remaining in the Paul Ricard 1000km.

Together with Luca Stolz and Yelmer Buurman, who qualified the car on pole,Christodoulou was running third in the six-hour prelude to the Spa 24 Hours when he lost drive and was forced to retire the car, costing him a first outright Blancpain GT podium.
“It’s just heart-breaking really to come so close to a result, only to see it slip through our fingers,” said the 28-year-old.

“I just feel sorry for the crew and everyone involved because it looked like we were going to be celebrating last night, but it wasn’t to be.”

Proving his pace in qualifying was no fluke, Buurman built a 1.5 second lead over the 58-strong field by the end of lap one and had increased his margin to 3.5 seconds before the race was neutralised by the safety car on lap eight.
After a brief return to green-flag running, a Full Course Yellow prompted the majority of the field to make an early pitstop, but AMG Team Black Falcon elected to stick with their original plan and stay out until the end of the 65-minute allotted driver time.

Buurman led a pack of four into the pits at the end of their window, with Stolz assuming the controls in 44th position. However another Safety Car meant his deficit to the leaders, due in for their second stops shortly afterwards, was drastically reduced and helped bring the team back into play.

By the end of his 29-lap stint, Stolz had cycled back through to second, beforeChristodoulou climbed aboard for his first stint in 21st position.

The Briton continued the car’s progress through the field as the sun set and executed a fine pass on the No. 2 Audi, which had been stubbornly defending its position for several laps, to get himself into some clear air and chip away the gap to the leading No. 99 BMW, running a similar divergent strategy.
From over 30 seconds, Christodoulou had reduced the margin to 10 seconds when the BMW was forced out of the race, allowing him to lead at half-distance.

“It was a confusing race to follow, which I think was due to us being offset against everyone else,” Christodoulou said.

“There was a lot of discussions trying to figure out whether it would be the right thing to do or not, but we made the decision and stuck with it. I think at one point we ended up on the third page of the timing screens, but as people started to pit we made our way back into the lead.

“It was tough out there in the traffic because we were really strong in the tight and twisty third sector, but it was a little tough to overtake. We weren’t sure where we were going to end up until the final stops were completed, so all we could do was push as hard as we could.”
After pitting on lap 89, Buurman returned to the car inside the top 10 and again cycled through to the lead before handing back to Stolz, now in full darkness, on lap 121.

Stolz resumed in fifth and kept the car in contention as track temperatures dropped before giving the reigns to Christodoulou for the final run to the flag.

Running third and closing on the second-placed No. 72 Ferrari, Christodoulou was feeling positive when the car suddenly lost power at turn 12 and coasted back to the pits into retirement.
“It’s a real shame because we were in third position and things were looking pretty good,”Christodoulou continued.

“It’s extremely unusual because the AMG is known for its durability and being bullet-proof, it’s the first time this has happened.

“We’ve been working extremely hard at Black Falcon and AMG to iron out any problems and optimise our package, but although we didn’t get the result in the end, it was nice to put on an extremely strong performance and it looked like we were going to be the top AMG as well.

“We had a mega qualifying, all of us were quick and at the start of the race we were definitely in control. Everyone knows we were one of the main cars to beat, so it’s definitely given us a good confidence boost heading to Spa and hopefully we can carry the momentum into the 24 Hours.”

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25

Apr 2017

Top 10 finish kicks off Christodoulou’s Blancpain season at Monza

Posted By Adam Christodoulou / AMG, Blancpain, Endurance, News / AMG, Blancpain, Career, news / No Comments

Adam Christodoulou made a strong start to his Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup campaign at Monza, securing a top ten finish for Mercedes-AMG Team Black Falcon after a red flag caused the race to be restarted.

The 2016 Nürburgring 24 Hour winner showed he will be a force to be reckoned with in the ultra-competitive 50 car GT3 field this season as he brought the No. 4 Mercedes-AMG GT3 he shared with co-drivers Yelmer Buurman and Luca Stolz home in tenth, the same position they started.
However, 28-year-old Christodoulou could count himself fortunate to finish at all, following a start-line accident which eliminated 10 cars immediately.

A collision between a Bentley and a Lamborghini on the run to the first corner forced Buurman to take avoiding action, but fortunately he emerged from the incident without damage.

“Yelmer did a great job staying out of trouble at the start of the race, he definitely had front row tickets to the chaos unfolding,” Christodoulou reported. “Lots of cars got collected, but Yelmer managed to get all the way through without a scratch.”
Once the race restarted after the extensive clean-up operation, Buurman focused on picking his way forward from 11th and made good progress through the traffic before handing over to Stolz, making his first appearance in the Mercedes-AMG GT3. The German driver continued Buurman’s good work and passed the Lazarus Lamborghini to hold sixth position into the final stint.

Christodoulou finally climbed aboard with just over an hour to go and despite losing time boxed in behind other cars in the cramped pitlane, caught the SMP Ferrari napping to steal another position after a brief Full Course Yellow period.

With 15 minutes to go, the AMG Driver faced enormous pressure from the Ferrari and defended his position into the tight first chicane. This was called into question by the stewards and the team received a penalty after the checkered flag.
It was a tough pill to swallow for Mercedes-AMG Team Black Falcon, althoughChristodoulou was pleased to take a point away from the historic Italian circuit, which has little in common with any other circuit on the Blancpain GT Series calendar.

“It’s been great to be back in action in the Blancpain Endurance Cup, it was an extremely tough weekend but a fun one,” said the Lichfield driver.
“Monza is always a tricky place – due to the nature of the track all the cars are extremely close, which we saw in qualifying with 32 cars inside one second.

“I believe this is one of our hardest tracks on the calendar now done and dusted, the next race on the calendar will be at Silverstone, which is my only home race of the year, so I’m really looking forward to it – hopefully racing at home will give us the advantage!”

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