The teams and drivers of the FIA GT3 European Championship struggled with difficult weather conditions at the Moscow Raceway last weekend. The penultimate event of the 2012 season was dominated by pouring rain and temperatures below 10 degrees Celsius. The organisers merged the GT1 and GT3 grids for the two final rounds of the season, keeping different qualifying and pit stop modes.
It was the first race at the Moscow Raceway for Swedish driver Max Nilsson with his team Team HEICO Gravity Charouz. Therefore, he and his partner Mika Vähämäki (FIN) used the free practice sessions on Saturday to make themselves familiar with the track. Finding a good line in his qualifying session, he secured the third fastest lap in the Mercedes Benz SLS AMG GT3, only three tenth of a second behind the fastest car. Vähämäki also took P3 in his qualifying session.
The safety car was deployed at the start of the first race due to the weather conditions. Max Nilsson tried to overtake the GT1 class Ford a few laps after the restart. However, his gull-winged car was rear-ended on the left side by an Esta Motorsports Ferrari in lap 6. This sent him into the gravel where he got stuck.
Since the rain was even heavier with very poor visibility at the start of the second race the safety car was deployed again. After spinning at the wet track and consequently dropping to the back of the grid, Vähämäki started to push forward again. Max Nilsson took the SLS over in P5 in the GT3 standings before another Ferrari (Russian Bear team) hit the Mercedes Benz. The Swede spun and had to finish the race with a broken wheel suspension. However, he still scored 6 points in the overall standings.
Max Nilsson: “The weekend had its ups and downs. The Moscow Raceway with its short and slow turns is quite tricky. Still, I made good progress in the free practice sessions. The qualifying sessions were quite good but we had no luck in the races. In the first race, a Ferrari missed the breaking point and sent me into the gravel; and I was hit again in the second race which forced me to finish the race with a broken suspension. I am really looking forward to the next racing weekend at the Nürburgring in Germany”.
Source : Max Nilsson