The Moslers did not see the finish line at Monza
PK Carsport
Charouz
Scuderia Ecosse
CR Scuderia
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PK Carsport
Brilliant catch-up race results in 3 points.
In the second round of the FIA GT championship held at Monza Bert Longin and Anthony Kumpen finished in sixth place, after a brilliant catch-up race. Thanks to this excellent result the drivers of PK Carsport have scored the first championship points of the season.
The weekend did not start off on a high note and during qualifying it reached an all time low. "Anthony spun at a place where at least seven other drivers had spun earlier" Bert Longin told us. "Unfortunately he came into contact with another competitor, and qualifying came to an abrupt end. We'll be starting from the back of the grid."
Not the ideal start position and definitely not an easy assignment for the PK Carsport duo. Anthony Kumpen took the start. "I was immediately able to climb up a few places but was losing some valuable time due to the traffic. The car was perfect, the tyres were excellent. We had earlier agreed to stay out on the track for as long as possible. I drove for 52 minutes and I was in fourth position as I came. Quite a few drivers had already pitted, and if you had worked out a ranking of all those who had already been into the pits we were roughly lying in seventh place."
In the pits Bert Longin followed Anthony with suspicion. "I watched him driving and it was a complete about-turn as compared to what we had experienced on Saturday. The car was handling perfectly, and this boosted my confidence. After the team's fast pit-stop I went out on to the track. As with Anthony I also completed a long stint. I must have driven for some fifty minutes prior to coming in."
All that remained was a short stint for Anthony Kumpen. "I rejoined the track in sixth spot and held my place. Not bad really when a weekend kicks off so dramatically as ours did on Saturday. The weather conditions weren't favourable, but the lack of expertise in setting-up the car ideally under such conditions was the main factor. That's something you have to learn. We gambled that it would rain and therefore opted for a rain set-up. and finally it remained dry the entire day. This meant that the car wasn't ideally configured and then to finish in sixth place, having had to catch up and overtake just about everyone makes you feel pretty satisfied. I would also like to congratulate the SRT boys with their excellent victory. That is really good for Belgian motor sport!"
"The entire team, we as drivers and definitely Pirelli as suppliers of tyres worked really hard and well" Bert Longin added. "The tyres were perfect, the drivers on top form. The only thing still lacking is the top speed. If you look at the race statistics you'll immediately notice that when it comes to top speed we're not amongst the top 10. We know what is left for us to do."
Charouz
Moslers did not finish at Monza
The GTO Charouz Racing team had a very unlucky weekend at Monza which culminated in today's rainy race of the FIA GT championship. Both Mosler MT900 did not finish. Stepan Vojtech and Kenneth Heyer had to retire in the early stage of the race while Adam Lacko and Ales Jirasek ended just before the mid point. The team had scored a double of the G2 class in the opening race at Silverstone but were unable to continue in the same way at Monza.
Heyer had to pit after the first lap because his car suffered of a fuel pressure problem. The mechanics tried to solve the problem but the crew had to retire after several unsuccessful attempts. Lacko was third in the G2 class and Jirasek held the place after the stop.
However, the young driver found himself in a critical situation just before the mid point of the race. He nearly collided with one of the Ferraris and just avoided any contact. He spun when was trying to avoid and went off the track. A starter malfunction caused a subsequent retirement. "It was very unlucky weekend. It is better to forget it. We are not able to use our new dry setup due rain at Monza. I hope that we will be happier next week at Adria," said Andreas Leberle, technical director of the team.
Scuderia Ecosse
SCUDERIA ECOSSE BITES BACK AT MONZA
The Scuderia Ecosse squad ended the second round of the FIA GT Championship at Monza today with a superb 3rd place; making them the highest-placed Pirelli shod team in GT2. With this superb result the team left Monza with a secure podium finish. Monza threw another challenge at the team as the sun came out literally minutes before the start of the race, sparking a frenzy of last minute set up changes on the grid.
Fabio drove the first stint in glorious sunshine and set about catching the leaders, handing the car over to Jamie Davies in an excellent 2nd place after 26 laps. After losing some time during the first pit stop due to a faulty fuel filler valve, Jamie Davies was charged with the task of regaining track position. He duly set the team's fastest lap of the day before handing back to Fabio for the final push to the chequered flag.
Post race Jamie Davies said, "The car was set up perfectly for the conditions considering we did not know if it was going to be a wet or dry race. The car was extremely fast and it had excellent balance and the Pirelli tyres got better and better with each lap and gave me a consistent feeling during the race. It is a good result for the team."
Scuderia Ecosse team principal Stewart Roden said as the race finished, "I am really pleased that we achieved a good result from today. We could have run less-wing on the car but it would have been a gamble if the weather conditions had changed. The result today consolidates our pre-season testing form and gives us the confidence moving forward to Adria next month. Both drivers did a fantastic job for the team this weekend at Monza."
Fabio Babini said "It has been a very good weekend and the team has worked very hard on the set up of the car. The Pirelli tyres gave me the confidence I needed to bring home the car in 3rd position I am confident that we can build on this result for our next race."
CR Scuderia
Andrew Kirkaldy and Rob Bell finished today’s FIA GT race at Monza in seventh position, followed home by Tim Mullen and Tim Sugden in eighth, in what turned out to be a tricky race at the famous Italian track. The weather has been very wet at Monza all weekend and more rain was forecast for this afternoon’s race.
The team ran higher levels of downforce to allow for the wet weather conditions but unfortunately the rain held off during the race and both CRS Ferraris struggled for the straight line speed which is so vital at Monza .
Andrew Kirkaldy explains: “We didn’t get it right today but we’re a new team and we know it takes time to get everything right at such a high level of racing. We need to go away and look at where we went wrong and I’m confident we will turn things around.”
The CRS team heads straight back to the UK tonight as the busy race schedule continues with the next two rounds of the British GT Championship at Rockingham next weekend.