RSV's speed did not translate into results at Valencia
RSV Motorsport finished its participation in the second meeting of the International GT Open, held this weekend in the circuit Ricardo Tormo, in Cheste. The result is a fifth position – a result which does not reflect the brilliant performance of Domingo Romero and Peter Sundberg during the three days of competition.
The weekend did not start in a very good way, actually. Peter Sundberg put the Ferrari 430 GT2 of the Andalusian motor-racing team up to the second position of the Pro-Am race – the first of the schedule. However, Domingo Romero had to resign himself with the 14th position because of the difficult management of the traffic on the track. RSV drivers, though, faced the hardest part of the weekend with confidence.
During the first race, on Saturday afternoon, Peter Sundberg got away from Manuel Giao’s Ferrari in the start of the test and placed himself in the lead. However, José Manuel Pérez-Aicart’s Sunred SR21 put him away of the track in the first bend, only 500 away from the traffic lights. A RSV driver had to leave the boxes in the worst way – the service road - for the third time in 2008.
The bad result from Saturday did not cool down Romero and Sundberg’s hope, and they got into the track prepared to rectify the situation on Sunday morning. And they did. RSV drivers moved up positions from the green light until an excellent fifth position, a fantastic result after such bad circumstances which gives them very important scores for the championship.
RSV Motorsport will spend the next two weeks on analysing the race circumstances in these first meetings of the calendar before they go to the expected meeting in Spa-Francorchamps, a track which is new for the International GT Open, and which is going to be held on the 31st of May and the 1st of June. Sundberg and Romero, together with Ronald Severin and Michel Ligonnet, have good memories of the circuit because of their 8th position obtained during the 24 Hours 2006, where they got their first score for a Spanish team in the history of FIA GT Championship.
Declarations:
Domingo Romero: "We had another complicated weekend but we go back home happily. Today I had to fight on the track during the first race but finally everything was okay and I could give Peter the car without problems. Yesterday the race was promising but all the expectation remained in the first bend".
Peter Sundberg: "We finally could gain a fifth position, which is a good result if we take into account the circumstances of the weekend. Today it was an intense race and we were able to move up several positions. Unfortunately, yesterday I was in the second position and another driver put me out from the track. We will continue working hard to be able to move up positions in the general classifications".