Genesis Magma Racing celebrates incredible qualifying performance while continuing to learn in the race

Genesis Magma Racing just missed out on a points-scoring in the penultimate round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), finishing 11th with the #19 crew of Dani Juncadella, Paul-Loup Chatin and Mathieu Jaminet after a challenging 6 Hours of Barcelona. The weekend did, however, showcase the impressive pace of the GMR-001 Hypercar as demonstrated in qualifying with Mathys Jaubert storming to a historic first-ever pole position for the brand.

Historic maiden pole goes unrewarded in the race

Aiming to continue the momentum gained from the previous round, the strong pace of the pair of GMR-001 Hypercars was confirmed from the start of the weekend with the #17 setting the second-fastest time in FP2 and the #19 doing likewise in FP3. Both cars comfortably progressed into Hyperpole, with Genesis Magma Racing Trajectory Program graduate Mathys Jaubert then setting two laps good enough for pole, with the #19 of Mathieu Jaminet taking third.

Overnight rain meant all cars started the race on the wet tyre, with André Lotterer briefly leading in the #17 before being passed by the fast-starting #19 of Dani Juncadella under braking for turn one. Unfortunately, as the first driver to encounter the wet track at racing speeds, Juncadella was caught out at turn five and slid through the gravel trap, dropping to the rear of the Hypercar field.

The variable grip levels proved a challenge for both cars, with both Juncadella and Lotterer suffering off-track moments as well as intermittent systems related issues which cost them valuable time.

Approaching the half-way point, the pace of the G8MR 3.2l V8 powered cars remained competitive, particularly for the #19 which was able to fight with those around it inside the points-paying positions. The #17’s race was impacted further after receiving a drive through penalty but, with Jaubert and then Pipo Derani, it reached the finish without further issues in P16.

Having taken over from Juncadella, Paul-Loup Chatin continued to move the #19 back towards the top 10 positions as strategy began to play a part in the closing hours. Mathieu Jaminet then brought the car to within half a second of a points-finish with a strong final stint but ultimately came up just short at the end. Despite the disappointment, the Genesis Magma Racing team gained more valuable data and lessons ahead of the final round of its maiden campaign in FIA WEC at Monza next month.

Genesis Magma Racing Team Management Quotes

Gabriele Tarquini, Genesis Magma Racing Sporting Director said:

Although we missed out on scoring points today, we saw that the potential of the car was there throughout the race. The positive point for us is knowing that we have a good car, but it’s clear that we also need to improve in certain areas, particularly in race trim. This will be our focus for the last race of the season at Monza, where we hope to have a trouble-free race there. Saturday was an unforgettable day for the whole team, securing the first pole position for Genesis; today was more challenging, we encountered some issues in the race which cost us points for both cars.

Justin Taylor, Genesis Magma Racing Chief Engineer said: It was a character-building day for everyone, drivers, engineers and mechanics included. With the single lap pace that we showed yesterday, our expectations for the race were pretty high, but clearly, we still have a lot to learn. We had a few small technical issues that just took us too long to sort out and that cost us too much time in the end. It’s all part of the learning process and we need to look into these issues and make sure we come back better prepared at Monza.

Driver Quotes - #17 GMR-001 Hypercar

Pipo Derani said: “The race was quite difficult for us, but we have to take the positives away from the weekend, which was the first pole position for Genesis Magma Racing, and we can be very happy with that. We had some issues during the race, which we were able to solve on the go, but this is the first year of this project and there are a lot of lessons to take into the future. The car has shown a lot of performance and really happy about that.”

Mathys Jaubert said: “Overall, it was a difficult race for us this weekend, but we showed that the pace over one lap was very good. On the other hand, there are still plenty of things to learn in terms of the race pace, car setup and the systems issues that we had during the race. There is a short gap between now and the last race of the year, so we hope to turn it around and score some points to finish the season on a high at Monza.”

André Lotterer said: “Unfortunately, not a good race for us, but there are lots of positives to take from this weekend with the pole position and a good performance from the sister car as well. We had some technical issues with the car which started after the first virtual safety car; up until that point it was quite good. All in all, we couldn’t really perform to our maximum because of this. It’s part of the process of being new to the championship but we will go home, analyse and try to fix this, and hope to be stronger at Monza. We’ve been strong in qualifying, but we need to improve on Sunday.”

Driver Quotes - #19 GMR-001 Hypercar

Paul-Loup Chatin said: “I am happy with the performance that we have shown all weekend to be honest. We were quite strong in free practice, qualifying and even in the race; we just had some issues during the race but in the end, we were only half a second away from scoring our first points for the #19 car so this proves that the pace was strong. It is frustrating but we have to learn together as a team, and I am sure our time will come.”

Mathieu Jaminet said: “We need to keep the positives. Once again, we highlighted that the one-lap speed of the car is outstanding. For our first year, to start first and third was incredible, even if Saturday was not entirely smooth on our side. Unfortunately, the race didn’t go our way for a number of reasons, but we will take these learnings into the next three weeks, get our heads down and prepare as best we can for the final round of the season at Monza. We clearly have the speed, there is no question about this, and we are able to fight with the others, we just need to execute at every level and make that step to score points with both cars.”

Dani Juncadella said: “It’s a frustrating result for sure, there are a lot of areas we need to analyse but personally, just a bad day. I made a good start and was looking good for four corners and I just misjudged the grip and the braking point and went from first to last which was very annoying. We were really strong in the wet and I made my way back to P8 which was very nice, but when it dried out, we weren’t as competitive as we would have liked. There were some little setbacks during the race which made us drop back. Despite losing a lap, we nearly made the points, but it was not to be unfortunately.”