Home race has brought no luck to Joel Camathias, in the 7th round of the International GT Open at Monza. The Swiss driver and team mate Matteo Beretta could not go beyond an 11th and an 8th position, in a weekend where they struggled since the beginning.

Race 1 saw Joel taking the start and concluding his stint in 3rd, but any podium chance were lost when a mistake in serving the handicap cost an extra 10-second penalty. A fuel pick-up issue further delayed the car until P11. In Race 2, a contact with another car in the agitated opening laps, with Matteo at the wheel, compromised the behavior of the car, and Joel couldn’t make better than P8.

The two final races of the GT Open will take place at Barcelona  on 1st-2nd November.

Joel Camathias:

“It has been a  frustrating weekend, where everything seems to have gone wrong. We were struggling with the set-up since practice. Still, in Race 1, I could bring the car into 3rd in my stint, which was quite nice. Then everything went wrong. We had a relatively high handicap, 15 seconds, and on top we didn’t serve it completely, which led to another stop for a 10-second drive-through. All that brought extra fuel consumption and there were pick-up problems in the final lap. In Race 2, the behavior of the car, already not perfect, was further worsened by a contact of Matteo with another car. It was really difficult to stay on the track and I couldn’t do much in my stint. It’s a pity, because we lost our chances in the championship. This said, we’ll go to Barcelona determined to close the season on a high.”