At the last weekend the MRS team opened its European season with the first run of the Blancpain Endurance Series at the royal park of Monza. The beautiful McLaren MP4-12C, where Rodin Younessi (USA), Carlos Kray (BRA) and Philipp Eng (A) were sharing the work behind the steering wheel, should also be the big surprise. In a field of 60 super sports cars in the hands of the best teams from Europe, Philipp Eng has already set a top time in the free practice which shows the potential of the car.
However the first race weekend of the MRS team should not be without problems. Because of an upset stomach first Rodin Younessi had to cancel the Friday and Saturday session, and in addition there were some technical problems with the British sports car, which meant that the MRS McLaren could not participate all training sessions. As well as at the first part of the qualifying where the Brazilian Carlos Kray was in the car. After just one lap he had to come back into the pits. This meant that in the second qualifying session Philipp Eng had to chase the pole position with to much fuel.
While Eng in Q2 could set himself very impressive at the top, in the full settlement it was only enough for the third place overall and for the pole position in the Pro-Am-class.
„Sure we had the pole position just in front of us, the car was fantastic, whenever it was on the track, which unfortunately was not always the case this weekend. The technical problems distracted us from the concept. Anyhow I am very happy and proud to be at the top of one of the strongest GT3 series of the world”, said Philipp Eng after the qualifying.
On Sunday afternoon a starting field with 60 cars had been send out in the formation lap of the 3 hours race. After the rolling start was released, Philipp Eng could immediately take the lead with the MRS McLaren, in front of a very strong Nissan GT3. Only after half an hour Eng had to give up against the permanent attacks and after one hour placed on the second position he came back into the pit for his regular pit stop. Here it came to a little disaster: blocked by another competitor the MRS crew loosed plenty of time until they can send Rodin Younessi back on the track. The MRS McLaren disappeared in the depths of the rankings. When at the last stint Younessi gave the car to Carlos Kray, the team was penalized with a drive-through penalty, because the engine was stopped to late when refueling. Before Carlos Kray, due to a problem with the radio, realized and completed the drive-through penalty, the race control took out the McLaren with the starting number 77 with a black flag half an hour before the race ended.
Karsten Molitor (team leader): „That was a weekend with ups and downs. There were a lot of technical problems with the car, which distracted us. Again and again we had to skip important training sessions or we could only turn a few laps. We knew that we had the potential to reach a good result, which gives us hope for the next races. Again Philipp showed an amazing performance, the start of the race was sensational. With these strong competitors it makes us a little bit proud that we could lead the field for half an hour. A big thank you to the whole team who worked again indefatigably at this weekend!”
Source : MRS