International GT Open: Henrique Chaves ready for GT debut

25 april 2019  

Henrique Chaves will start next weekend his International GT Open’s campaign, at the Circuit de Paul Ricard, France, where he will debut in the GT world.

In 2019, the Portuguese youngster will take part in the European competition organized by GT Sport, taking part in one of the most selective motorsport’s worlds.

Henrique Chaves will drive one of the Teo Martín Motorsport’s McLaren 720S GT3, sharing the duties with Martin Kodric, a McLaren Young Professional Program’s driver.

After the winter testing, Henrique Chaves is confident for his GT debut, at Paul Ricard. “Testing is important, but after a long winter, I’m really excited with the start of the season and to be racing again. We are well prepared, we have a competitive car, a good team and I have a good teammate, who knows the McLaren 720S very well. This will be important to me, as it will allow me to evolve quicker in this new category. Now, it’s time to race and fight for good results in a very strong field”, said the twenty-one-year-old driver.

With twenty-five cars in the track, the Portuguese driver knows he will have a hard debut in the International GT Open, as there will be strong GT3 drivers on the grid. However, he is motivated to start the season with good results. “The field is very competitive with strong drivers and we will have to work hard. We will look for the best set-up in the practice sessions so we can have a competitive car that allow us to fight for the points positions. We still don’t know who is in front, which teams or cars, but we want to show our potential in the first weekend”, said Henrique Chaves.

The official program of the Paul Ricard’s round of the International GT Open will start Friday, with the practice sessions. Saturday will be held a qualifying session and a race, 14h30 (GMT+1). Sunday will mirror the day before, but the race will be held at 14h00 (GMT+1). The first race will have a seventy minutes duration and the second sixty and both can be