Lietz Had “Just Enough” to Clinch LMGT3 Win

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI

Richard Lietz admitted he had “just enough” to keep a charging Kelvin van der Linde at bay on a double stint tire strategy to secure Manthey Racing’s first FIA World Endurance Championship victory of the season at Imola.

The No. 92 Porsche 911 GT3 R, which Lietz shared with Ryan Hardwick and Riccardo Pera, came out on top in a hard-fought duel at the conclusion at the 6 Hours of Imola, which saw the top two cars separated by just 0.316 seconds.

Van der Linde’s No. 46 BMW M4 GT3 EVO took a fresh set of Michelin tires during its final stop while Manthey opted to double stint tires on Lietz’s No. 92 Porsche for the closing phase of the race.

The tire advantage allowed Van der Linde to rapidly cut away at the Porsche’s lead as the end of the race neared, repeatedly gaining more than a second per lap on Lietz.

However, in a closely-fought battle in the closing minutes, Van der Linde proved unable to overtake the No. 92 machine, finishing second behind Lietz.

Speaking after the race, Lietz joked that “it was definitely too much stress for my age,” admitting that he knew the tire strategy Manthey had chosen could leave him vulnerable to the chasing BMW.

“To be honest, I heard on the radio from my engineer that it could be difficult at the end,” said Lietz.

“We took the risk with strategy to double stint to the end of the race.

“It was also the coolest and the most rubber laid down so I think from our perspective, with not the biggest car, it was a bit more risky than the others.

“Therefore it was just enough, which was nice for the spectators to give a good show.

“But for the drivers and engineers it was a lot of stress.”

For his part, Van der Linde noted that he was also aware of the tire advantage he held of the Porsche and thus knew it was likely to come down to a battle in the final laps.

“I knew they had a double stint of tires and I had new tires all round,” Van der Linde told Sportscar365.

“So the team said to me, ‘We need one second a lap and at the end you’ll have fresher tires.’ That was the scenario I was building myself up for.

“Of course, you have fresher tyres, you have the opportunity, but still Imola is probably one of the most difficult tracks to overtake.

“Two laps was just a little bit too little today.”

While Van der Linde was able to close right up to Lietz, he was not able to pull off a decisive overtake and also lost some ground in the battle when he was lapped by one of the Peugeot 9X8s at Acque Minerali.

“I knew pretty much that it would come down to the last two laps,” said Van der Linde.

“Two laps isn’t really enough to really spot exactly where the weaknesses were and then some Hypercars got in the mix.

“The Peugeot, to be fair, I think that really cost us a good shout at it. It made a little bit of a gap. So that was a bit unfortunate, but I think nonetheless it was a good showing.”

Van der Linde brought the No. 46 BMW back into contention after it had served a stop and go penalty after an earlier incident that had been handed out Valentino Rossi had collided with Vista AF Corse driver Simon Mann at Rivazza 2.

“It was really cool to be fighting from P8 or whatever it was and then to come back and fight for the win today,” Van der Linde reflected.

“A little bit bittersweet I have to say. I think we knew we had a good chance to win this one so obviously it hurts a little bit that we couldn’t wrap it up.

“But still a very interesting race, a lot of fun and I’m happy to be on the podium with Vale and Ahmad [al Harthy].”

John Dagys contributed to this report