The second FIA GT1 World Championship race took place in sunny conditions in Zolder, Belgium. Swiss Racing Team was optimistic after a successful first race in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates in March. The Swiss team switched to Lamborghini shortly before the start of the season and compete with two Lamborghini Murciélago LP 670 R-SV. Car #5 is driven by Karl Wendlinger (AUT) and Peter Kox (NLD), car #6 by Swede Max Nilsson and Czech Jiri Janak.
This weekend, the team faced several technical problems. The gearbox of Lambo #6 failed and was replaced. However, before the championship race it became obvious that the oil pump had failed as well. There was not enough time to replace it and therefore the car stayed in the pit during the main race.
There were similar problems with the other Lamborghini. However, they were repaired in time.
In the qualifying race the cars started from row 9 (#6) and row 4 (#5). Both cars gained places and after a good performance and quick pit stops Max Nilsson drove across the finish line in P8 and Karl Wendlinger in P4, scoring the first three points of the weekend. Wendlinger tried to pass the third placed driver (Team Young Driver in Aston Martin) on the start/finish line, with only 0.063sec missing.
The championship race started at 2:45 p.m. on Sunday, with only car #5 competing for the Swiss team. The other Lamborghini stayed in the pit. The start of the race was dramatic because some cars in the middle field immediately got in each other’s way. Wendlinger defended P4 when the safety car was deployed in lap 8 due to a crash. Shortly before the mandatory stops the regular race was continued. The Austrian did a quick pit stop, handing the car over to Kox who got back on track in P5. However, in the last lap on the finish line the Dutch reached P4 with a lead of 25 hundredths of a second, scoring another twelve points for the team.
Team principal Othmar Welti: “Of course, we are not happy with the result because we were forced to keep one Lamborghini in the pit. However, we scored 16 points this weekend. You have to consider that we compete in a new brand this season and are still learning. However, it is going well and we are confident that we will be successful with both cars and continue to score for the team. The team has earned it after doing a lot of nightshifts this weekend. I also have to point out the quick pit stops the team manages to do. And we also have the right pilot duos. We are pleased with the teamwork that is already bearing fruit.”
Team manager Erich Kolb: “Great job by the team and the pilots who had a stressful weekend. Unfortunately, due to technical problems we were not able to get the results that would have been possible but 16 points are not too bad. Both cars had a great speed in the races. We need to make Q2 with car #6 and Q3 with car #5. We are confident that we will score points again in Portimao.”
Karl Wendlinger (#5): “We can be very happy with the weekend. The car was very good and I had a great start. There were not a lot of fights for positions in my stint because of the long safety car phase. The mechanics did a perfect pit stop and Peter did a great job. The car maintained a great performance and he was able to reach P4 in the end. Considering that this was only the second race of the FIA GT1 World Championship and that we have only been working with the cars for a short time the performance was very good and we need to continue this way.”
Peter Kox (#5): “I am happy for the team and about the points they scored. You have to consider that Swiss Racing got the cars very late and so far did not actually have time to really work with the cars. The team did a huge job this weekend; there was a lot to do. The progress is excellent; we did not produce any scratches on the cars and scored points. I see great potential in the team and plenty of room for improvement. We have a few weeks time until the Portimao race and we will definitely use them.”
Max Nilsson (#6): “The weekend was not very good for me because I did not get a lot of chances to drive. The team had to solve the technical problems which cost a lot of time. In the end I was not able to compete in the main race on Sunday. I hope that we can solve the problems until the next race and that they do not occur again. It would be good to get a chance to test the car before the Portimao race.”
Source : Swiss Racing Team