Downton team principal Bradley Downton has described how a "litany of tyre issues" caused Klaas van Snelheid's downfall from a comfortable lead in the United States V-Prix in what quickly turned into a "race to forget" for the team. Having started from pole position, the Dutchman held a commanding lead prior to the second round of hard tyre stops around lap 60, but unlike his rivals behind - van Snelheid never pitted a second time. The degradation soon became clear as he ended up off track not once but twice, and was so slow trying to nurse the tyres he slipped to tenth at the flag.
"As with every race, we check the tyres just beforehand after receiving them from Goodyear," Downton explained in an interview post-race. "This is normal procedure. However upon doing so, we noticed that Klaas' third race set were damaged. There was a huge cut in what was to be the front left. Thankfully, once we have informed Goodyear of our tyre choice, they give us what they believe the required allocation of tyres is, plus one extra set for emergencies - so we had a spare." "Unfortunately, when we went to check this set after noticing the issues with the former set and speaking to Goodyear, we swiftly noticed this set too would be unusable because the tyre blankets had malfunctioned and essentially cooked the tyres." "With Goodyear unable to provide us with additional sets, we were now planning how best to manage the race with just two sets of tyres, and could only think we'd have to give away some time and ask Klaas to extend the stints and try a 1-stop. When it's not your day, it's not your day though, and towards the end of his first stint we noticed a slow puncture on the rear right that we can only assume came from some debris, and so on safety grounds had to pit Klaas earlier than we intended, leaving him just short of 50 laps to do on his second stint." "Obviously, this was never going to go well, and the tyres dropped off the cliff exactly as we expected. Our predictions had Klaas absolutely free-falling, so the fact he even managed to pick up one point was an exceptional performance." van Snelheid is known for being a driver who wears his heart on his sleeve, and once again dodged all media commitments following the race, deciding instead to immediately depart the circuit. "I've not spoken to Klaas in person yet, no," Downton said. "I spoke to him on the radio after the race and apologised, and he understood - but obviously this hurt. It's the second time a Goodyear tyre issue has cost him a win, and last time it cost him the title to go with it. He was angry but not with the team, he understands we did everything we could - and we agreed it was best for him to just swiftly disappear and we'd deal with any ramifications later." van Snelheid's team mate Nathaniel Powers also encountered issues during the race, colliding with the stationary car of Thierry Xylander prior to his final stop. "Obviously at this point, we already knew Klaas was going to be in trouble, but thought we could at least pick up another podium with Nathaniel," Downton explained. "And then that happened. Nathaniel apologised on the radio and said he was changing a setting on his steering wheel at the time but, yeah. He would have had to pit again anyway, but without the incident would not have lost as much time and might have just been able to get Johan, but there we go. It's absolutely not what we wanted from a front row lockout, especially when Mathershaw Porsche got the strategy call completely wrong and we had a great chance to capitalise today, but didn't. A race to forget for sure."
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