CLÉMENT MATEU FALLS DOWN AGAINST HIS RIVALS AT PAUL RICARD

19th October 2022 PCCF
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The last round of the French Porsche Carrera Cup Championship took place within the context of the SRO Racing Festival, with the French FFSA GT Championship event taking the lead. The Var circuit welcomed a great motorsport meeting with no less than eight disciplines represented. That's to prove that there was a lot of activity on the track.

The Circuit Paul Ricard has almost no secrets for Clément Mateu, who had the opportunity to climb on the podium (2nd place) during the French F1 Grand Prix at the end of July for the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup.

Not the final that Clément Mateu was hoping for

Before the final round of the French Porsche Carrera Cup Championship, the HEXIS manager was looking for a second victory this year and more importantly a second place in the drivers' classification in the Pro/Am category.

Although the first tests went smoothly, Clément Mateu quickly realized that many disciplines running this weekend were putting a lot of tyre rubber on the track (the pick-up). Although not totally satisfied with the performance, the mechanics and the team will modify the set-up that Clément will quickly transform into the second qualifying time of the two sessions. Unfortunately, here at Le Castellet, the track limits dictate their law, and it is because of the "Track Limit" penalties that the Montpellier native will lose this advantage on the starting grids of the two races.

The first race took place at night, but Clément Mateu didn't have the feeling to have the good rhythm of the leaders. He ended his race in a distant fifth place, which did not satisfy him at all.

On Sunday, the race is held during the day. After a good start and a first loop done without any problem, Clément will be the victim of the peloton still grouped in the midfield. In the first sector of the track, after the "S corners", a competitor will be completely lost, and will lose all notion of driving and he will hit Clément, which will unfortunately end the race of the CLRT driver.

"It was not a satisfactory weekend at all! In free practice, we were lacking a bit of performance and then we quickly saw that with all the categories on track, there was a lot of tire waste, not easy to find grip and not a good feeling behind the wheel. We managed to rectify the situation for qualifying and I achieved the second fastest time in my class twice. Unfortunately the track limits meant that I lost this advantage.

In the first night race, I couldn't find the right rhythm and I finished a bit far behind, in the background. For the second race, I had a good start and a good first lap, then I fell victim to a runaway competitor. He completely harassed me at turn 5, that was the end of the race. Very disappointed to see behavior like that, I don't know what he was thinking. There were other problems during these two races, where the race direction was not often alert as it should have been, some drivers cut corners without being sanctioned, all this lacked fair play this weekend.

On the other hand, I would like to thank and congratulate the CLRT team, the whole technical staff and also Marvin Klein (2022 Porsche Carrera Cup champion). He was crowned for the second time, a great achievement, congratulations to him because it was far from easy, he did a great job this year, he is a great driver.

Clément Mateu, HEXIS manager and driver of the Porsche 911 GT3 CUP

Results race 1

1 - S. Noël (Racing Technology)
2 - J. Boullery (Racing Technology) +1’’586
3 - M. Maxence (IMSA Performance) +6’’352
5 - C. Mateu (CLRT) +25’’109

Results race 2

1 - J. Boullery (Racing Technology)
2 - M. Maxence (IMSA Performance) +10’’775
3 - S. Noël (Racing Technology) +15’’189
DNF - C. Mateu (CLRT) +14 laps

Standings drivers Pro/Am

1 - J. Boullery (Racing Technology) 261 pts
2 - S. Noël (Racing Technology) 204 pts
3 - C. Mateu (CLRT) 168 pts

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