GT Life

24/06/2011 A Lap of Navarra with Christoffer Nygaard

Christoffer Nygaard will be a busy person this weekend as races the Belgian Racing Ford GT in the FIA GT1 World Championship also a GT3 spec Ford GT for Fischer Racing. The Danish driver describes a lap of the 3.9km Spanish track.

"Going down the start-finish straight we will be up to top speed, which I guess will be around 270kph in 6th gear. We come to the first corner, which is a light kink to the right, which is really fast and a bit tight. We then start braking for the next corner and the hairpin. You're braking all the way through, which makes this a really difficult corner. Dropping down to 2nd gear for the Hairpin and then accelerating out, which is a little bit downhill to the next corner, which is a slight left hander; quite a fast corner which opens a lot on the exit.

"We continue to head downhill towards Turn 5. This corner is difficult because it is blind due to the hill on the inside, so you can't see the exit and have to see the corner as you go through it. It's also quite fast; I guess we'll be in 4th gear. Then we brake for Turn 6, which is a little bit uphill and is also a blind corner. We use a little bit of the kerb on the outside before heading through the next right hander, which is downhill to Turn 8. This is a really narrow turn and it is really important to get a good exit for the next straight.

"We should be up to 5th gear on the straight before braking heavily for the next corner at Turn 9. There is a lot of grip here, dropping down the gears to 2nd. It's quite an easy right hand corner but you have to be careful of the kerbs because they have raised sections to stop cars from going too far over the kerbs. Braking hard for the next left hand corner, the track is really narrow and this section is a bit stop and go. Around Turn 10 in 2nd gear and we should be the same for the next corner. Out of Turn 11 and accelerating hard up to Turn 12, which is also very tight.

"Accelerating out of the corner and heading down to the final corner before the start finish straight. There is left hand kink at Turn 13, this section is a little bit uphill and the final corner is also uphill as you are turning right. A good exit is needed here to get good acceleration as you head across the line to begin another lap.

"The facilities at Navarra are very nice and it is all brand new; Navarra is a very nice place to go with the World Championship. For spectators there are some great viewing areas. From the top of the garages you can see a long way and from the hill by Turn 6 you can see almost all the track so Navarra is a great place for the spectators. I'm really looking forward to visiting Navarra again."