What a brutal, dizzying weekend for Genesis in Spain. As Motorsport.com Italia reports, the manufacturer went straight from the absolute euphoria of a maiden Hypercar pole position on Saturday to an absolute disaster of a race on Sunday during the FIA WEC round at the Circuito de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Everything started so brightly, too. Local hero Daniel Juncadella launched brilliantly from third on the grid in the GMR-001 #19, cleanly slicing past Sébastien Buemi and his own teammate André Lotterer to grab the lead right at turn 1. For four glorious corners, the machine looked unbeatable. But with rain leaving the asphalt treacherous and unpredictable, the Spaniard misjudged his braking point and the available grip at turn 5, sliding all the way down to 16th place. He was left ahead of only the spinning Alpine #35 from the race start.
Early safety car interventions dragged him back into the top 10 by the end of the opening hour despite a few more off-track excursions, but the Korean constructor simply lacked the necessary race pace once a dry line began to appear. Juncadella, Mathieu Jaminet, and Paul-Loup Chatin ultimately crossed the finish line in 11th place with the #19 machine, a full lap down on the winning Toyota #8 piloted by Buemi, Ryo Hirakawa, and Brendon Hartley. The 35-year-old didn't mince words about his costly mistake after climbing out of the cockpit: "I messed everything up and ruined it. I'm sorry for the team, but it was a tough race in the final phase, with a couple of setbacks. But we move on," he admitted, adding bluntly that he completely miscalculated the conditions.
Things weren't any smoother on the other side of the garage for the Oreca-chassised team. Lotterer had qualified third in the sister car, but dropped from first to third on the opening lap before being hamstrung by a technical issue linked to the traction control. After sliding wide and falling to 14th, the veteran copped a drive-through penalty and also lost a lap. Genesis chief engineer Justin Taylor described the humbling afternoon as a steep learning curve for the new entrant, pointing out that while the single-lap speed was there on Saturday, technical gremlins and lost time ultimately proved too costly as they now look ahead to Monza.
