VLN, Round 9, 12/10/2013

Markus Palttala, Stefan Landmann and Henrik Still retired with an empty fuel tank on the last lap while running 2nd in class and 7th overall. Palttala had qualified 11th, 2nd in Cup, in the mixed conditions and took the lead on the opening lap. Fight for the lead went on for hours but in the end, the fuel strategy didn’t work out and the Finn had to park the car half way through the final lap.

“It is really frustrating because we were right there in the fight for the top spot. The overall leaders crossed the line just before the flag fell and it surprised us that there was one more lap to go. We knew it was going to be risky but decided to try all or nothing. It came to nothing but good news is I was able to take the lead in the beginning and pull away for a while so we are on the right way. I also had lots of fun because we started in the middle of the faster cars due to the wet qualifying session. The Cup class is so tough that you can’t win without pushing it to the limit. We learned a lot again and have one more chance in 2 weeks to challenge for the win.”

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