Sorensen Encouraged by Valkyrie Progress After Spa Showing

Photo: Javier Jimenez/DPPI

Marco Sorensen believes it “won’t be too long” before the Aston Martin Valkyrie will be a points contender in the FIA World Endurance Championship, spurring the team to push on with its current progress after an encouraging showing in the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.

The two V12-powered Hypercars finished 13th and 14th at Spa, with the better-placed No. 007 car of Tom Gamble and Harry Tincknell notably finishing on the lead lap in a WEC race for the first time.

That came after the car’s best showing in the championship to date, as the No. 007 machine notably came close to scoring the car’s first point running in tenth before it needed to pit for a late fuel stop.

In contrast, the No. 009 car that Sorensen shared with Alex Riberas finished a lap off the lead, but the Dane struck an optimistic figure after the race when asked about the program’s progress since its Qatar debut.

“Generally the pace was much better than what we had in Imola,” Sorensen told Sportscar365.

“So we’ve already taken a step from Imola. And I think if we keep on taking these kind of steps, I believe it won’t be too long before we’re going to be in the mix and fighting with the other guys.

“I think that’s where we need to get to and from that point on I think the program will come alive.

“The WEC in general with these cars nowadays, it’s such a hard championship to get into and you kind of feel that first hand when you come with a brand new car and you try to be up there.

“I think it’s a shock for everyone of course but it’s also nice to be in the process of actually trying to get into the mix with the other cars.

“I think [this] was actually the first time where I was in the car and depending what tires you’re on, I was actually managing to keep a couple of cars behind as well which was obviously quite nice.

For his part, Gamble noted it was “cool” to see the Valkyrie come close to its maiden points finish, noting that it could have been possible if a late Full Course Yellow for recovering debris had lasted a little longer.

“Just a marshal running on track, so we could have done with him either slipping over or walking a bit slower,” Gamble joked.

“But it was cool to see it’s close. It’s good for the team morale, seeing it moving up the grid.

“[This] has been a really good race for us because it’s the first race we’ve actually finished on the lead lap. The other races we’ve dropped back a few laps.

“The safety cars definitely helped us, but even then it’s a still good achievement for us.

“It’s step by step, we’re moving a little bit closer and gathering a lot of information every time we get in the car.

“There’s new things that are being learned and the car is getting quicker.”

Looking ahead to Le Mans, Gamble was particularly hopeful that test day running would provide more valuable on-track time, especially after the No. 007 car had its program at Spa truncated after a crash in Free Practice 2 that he attributed to a braking issue.

“Fingers crossed, Le Mans, more learning,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot of running on track obviously before the race there, which helps us a lot because we didn’t get a lot of running here and we had an incident on Thursday which cost us track running.

“So Le Mans, hopefully have a clean build up to it.

“Who knows how Le Mans is going to go in terms of the whole grid, so fingers crossed it will be a close one and we can challenge for a good result.”