Allan Simonsen (pictured), along with Phillip Peter were the leading Aston Martin drivers at Adria
A few days after the highs and lows of the Le Mans 24 Hour, Allan Simonsen was winging his way to Italy for the third round of the FIA GT Championship. Once again he'd be aboard the Gigawave Motorsport Aston Martin DBR-9 GT1.
Simonsen and his team mate, Austrian Phillip Peter, had started the year in the best possible way by taking a third place at both Silverstone and Monza, cementing themselves into second place in the European Championship.
Adria was new to Simonsen, as was the experience of arriving at Venice airport without his luggage. After walking the track with Nigel Stepney he was slightly at odds with the circuit.
"This reminds me of my go kart days. Its very short and tight and I don't think it will suit our Aston Martin particularly well. It will be the Corvettes that are strong, here with their big American V8 able to pull them out of the slow corners easily.
"We'll have our work cut out this weekend because we're also running 40kg of success ballast.
"Frankly I think its a boring track and I'm surprised we even run GT1 cars here, but its the same for everyone and we have a job to do so there is no sense complaining about it. We'll try our hardest to grab more points.
It was seriously hot in Italy this week and with the track set in marshy lowlands, humidity was a factor.
It was Peter's turn to qualify and as usual did a fantastic job, putting the car on grid position seven, which was only 0.5sec off pole, despite the ballast.
Peter made a strong start, holding sixth for the first few laps but the car speed wasn't really there and dropped to 9th a few laps later.
It was very tough race for both Peter and Simonsen – the heat was intense and the drink hose had ruptured. Add to that a failing cool suit, an airvent that felt like a blow touch and you've got a very difficult race environment.
Never the less, Simonsen took over the helm at lap 40, returning the car to Peter on lap 80, in 5th. Peter went on the salvage 6th place and three points. A very respectable outcome all things considered.
"It was the hottest race I've ever done, said Allan.
"But we made some points and got rid of our success ballast so we'll be good at Oscherscleben in a couple of weeks.
"The whole Gigawave team did a superb job once again and the pit stops were flawless. It is great to be the best Aston Martin out there too.
Simonsen and Peter each have 15 points in the 2008 FIA GT Championship, leaving them in 4th place.