The FIA GT1 World Championship travelled to South America for the final two races. This weekend, the sports car championship took place at the Interlagos Grand Prix racing circuit (Brazil). The exciting first season with world championship status will end in Argentina next weekend.
Christopher Haase (23, GER) and Peter Kox (47, NED) finished the free practice and the pre-qualifying sessions with a positive result. However, the qualifying session was a bad surprise. Kox started in the first of the three sessions with the Lamborghini Murcielago 670 R-S (REITER Engineering) and did not manage to reach the second qualifying session with P18. Furthermore, race management penalised the REITER duo for the crash in Navarra (Peter Kox) and handed them a 3-place grid penalty, placing the Lambo in P21.
“Peter said that he had no grip on the front axle and because of the understeering he was not able to get the right performance from the car. That is exactly what we wanted to avoid with the setup. However, either the tyre pressure was not optimal or our setup was wrong,” explains Christopher Haase.
The REITER crew modified the setup for the qualifying race in favour of tyre abrasion, and successfully so. “I had a very good start and my tyres remained fine for a long time. We managed to win many places, considering that we started in P21,” says Christopher Haase. Peter Kox took over from Haase in P8, came back into the field in P9 and kept this place until the end of the race. “Unfortunately we lost time at the stop,” says Haase.
For the championship race on Sunday the REITER team modified the setup for abrasion again, in order to increase the Lamborghini’s chances to attack. However, right from the start Peter Kox did not have a chance against his competitors and lost places. Kox remained stuck in P15. After an early stop Haase took over from Kox. “Peter simply did not reach the pace at the straight; he was not able to attack and lost places.” Haase stayed behind Mücke (Aston Martin) for a long time, until both cars came up to duo Clairay (Aston Martin) and Mutsch (Ford GT). Haase in P14 got involved. Mutsch beat Clairay and Haase also passed the Aston Martin pilot. Having reached P13, Haase pushed Mutsch. During the final 8 minutes of the race everybody was watching this fight for places without points which could not have been any more exciting. Haase and Mutsch engaged in a hard but fair fight. In the final lap Thomas Mutsch was not able to fight against his competitor Haase anymore and spun off the track.
Haase’s fans that travelled to the race from Kulmbach, Franconia watched the fight anxiously and were pleased about the “little victory” of the GT pilot. “That was great fun, especially with my fans from Franconia here. Their being here was a real surprise for me.” Having travelled here from so far, the fans will not miss out the final race in Argentina next weekend.
Source : Christopher Haase