BMW M Team RLL faces issues

• Nick Yelloly and Connor De Phillippi finish a challenging IMSA race at Laguna Seca in seventh place.
• Philipp Eng and Jesse Krohn show strong qualifying with a third-place finish but fall back during the race.

Laguna Seca. BMW M Team RLL showed good pace in qualifying with the two BMW M Hybrid V8s but fell back in the race after incidents and missed the podium.

Philipp Eng (AUT) started the race in the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 from third place after a strong qualifying session on Saturday. He held that position until the driver change to Jesse Krohn (FIN). However, a slip in the final hour of the race resulted in a damaged rear that had to be changed in the pits. Krohn finished the race in ninth place in the GTP class. Connor De Phillippi (USA) and Nick Yelloly (GBR) started in the sister car from fifth place and finished in seventh after losing time during a pit stop and also slipping off the track.

Comments after the race:

Connor De Phillippi (#25 BMW M Hybrid V8, 7th place): “It was a tough race. We had a good car this weekend, but we lost too much time and positions, especially in direct duels and when lapping the GTD cars. We still need to work on the drivability of the car and we generally need to do a better job with the race procedures. In this tight field, it’s about tenths of a second, so we can’t afford any mistakes. We will make another attempt at the podium in Detroit.”

Philipp Eng (#24 BMW M Hybrid V8, 9th place): “The positive is that we showed good pace throughout the weekend. We were in the top-three in every session. The car also felt very good in my first stint. It’s very disappointing that we then fell so far back. We need to analyze exactly how this could have happened. At one point, we were ahead of the winning car. We will attack again in the next race.”