After the first time two years ago the FIA GT1 came to the Argentinean street track in San Luis this weekend as a world championship for the final race of the 2010 season. The route of the track is very special, offers almost no safety zones and the slightest mistake could end in the closely located walls. For the pilots this 6.270 kilometres (3.896 miles) long track is attractive because of its nice surroundings as well as difficult because of the dirt (sand) off the racing line.
After a mixed season in the REITER Engineering Lamborghini Murcielago 670 R-S, Christopher Haase (23, GER) and Peter Kox (47, NED) demonstrated again how you can reach good results from an unfavourable starting position.
Haase/Kox finished the free practice session in P8 with a clear disadvantage with regard to the tyres. “We started with pretty bad tyres and some of the cars in front of us came from Interlagos with very good tyres because they did not finish the race there. Under these circumstances we are quite happy,” explains Haase.
For the pre-qualifying the Reiter team transferred the harder setup from the sister car to the Haase/Kox Lambo. However, they discovered that it did not have the desired result and changed the setup back for the qualifying.
Peter Kox finished Q1 in P13 and consequently reached the second session. Christopher Haase qualified the car for Q3 with P5. Kox took over for the third qualifying session and placed the Lamborghini in P6 in the third starting row for the qualifying race.
The qualifying race, with Christopher Haase going first, began turbulently and ended quickly for Haase. The first turn resulted in crashes and breakdowns. Haase was forced to make way and lost three places. “I won them back in the following two turns. In the slowest section of the track, in a right hand bend I noticed a cracking noise on the front axle and in the following left hand bend I felt a strange movement. I slowed down. Bartels prepared to pass in the following right hand bend on the left side and at that exact moment the front left kingpin of the suspension arm broke. My wheel buckled and I was not able to steer anymore,” says Haase. The Lambo crashed straight into the Vitaphone-Maserati and both landed at the back of the field. Haase touched the wall on the opposite side with his rear end, a complete breakdown. „That was very unfortunate. I am very sorry for Bartels but at that moment I was only a passenger in the Lamborghini,” says Haase regretfully.
The team only had a few hours to prepare the car for the main race. The mechanics worked under tremendous pressure and managed to have the Lamborghini ready two minutes before we had to go to the starting grip. „Kudos to the mechanics because the car had a good traction despite the narrow time frame,” says Haase.
Peter Kox started in the end of the field because of the breakdown and had reached P13 after one lap. Kox struggled with the excessive cooling water temperature for a short while. He lost a few places because of the power loss. He lost two additional places during the pit stop. Christopher Haase took over the Reiter Lambo, quickly beat a few competitors and was one of the fastest in the field. The 23-year old drove over the finish line in tenth place and was happy. “I am quite happy with my stint. The car had a good traction; I was able to close the gaps to cars in front of me quickly and had the second fastest time of all in the final lap. We were able to demonstrate once again that we would have been one of the top teams if we had not had so much bad luck. Congratulations to Bartels and Bertolini. They really deserved to win the World Championship title. I can say that I have learned a lot this season. It was important to learn how you can make unfavourable situations as successful as possible and not give up.”
Christopher Haase does not have to wait very long for his next race. The pilot from Franconia who is hungry for speed will compete in the Dubai 24 hours race in January.
Source : Christopher Haase