Silverstone Finale!
October 27, 2011It promised to be a spectacular end of the season with the iNGPS Silverstone GP. For the second time this year the grid lined up on the British circuit with a very good result for Team Redline after nearly 8 months of hard fought racing!
Qualification
In an exceptionally tight qual, Greger took 2nd position on the grid closely behind Jesse Nieminen. Redline’s latest recruit Atze Kerkhof started from p4 right behind Championship winner Hugo Luis. Luke McLean was struggling with the Australian morning hours but still took a promising 7th position on the grid. Dom Duhan on p15 and Darren Marsh close behind him on p18.
Race
With a strong start from the team we were once again just pipped by the My3ID drivers, taking P2 from Greger and P4 from Atze. Luke McLean had a super start making his way up to p5 after lap 1. Atze’s race ended in turn 1 after he had an unfortunately car contact with David Williams.
The beginning stage of the race was a bit a repetition of what we saw in earlier races. Greger has winning pace, but after getting jumped at the start he spent much of it looking at a My3ID gearbox. Despite Silverstone being a good place in general to overtake, the nature of the cars made it very difficult. Greger had to settle to the pits to try and catch Jesse Nieminen - and it worked. The pitstops saw Greger overtake Hugo Luis by taking a bit less fuel, he was then able to start his chase on the leading Nieminen. After fighting hard on the limit for every tenth of a second through the backmarker traffic, Greger lost again precious time again behind back marker Aleksi Simpanssi, blocking Greger for a whole lap.
Luke McLean seemed to be back on his potential top pace, showing a quick consistent race. However his qualification position cost him a possible podium spot, finishing 4th. After showing a promising pace in race and practice we’re glad he’s back on his amazing pace!
Dom Duhan found himself back in the top 8 at the end of the race. Duhan who had problems with finding time to practice, showed his true skills by finishing the race on experience and natural speed.
Darren Marsh’s race ended in lap 12 after being caught in a big accident, ruining his suspension.
This race has capped off an incredibly exciting season. Three drivers finishing in the top 10 overall. Greger took runner-up position after an awful start to the year, Luke McLean 5th, Ben Cornett 10th, Dom Duhan 16th and Darren Marsh 17th.
Pro Driver Atze Kerkhof will start his Pro season at Spa Francorshamps Saturday November 5th. The Race will be broadcasted live on PSRTV.com!
Driver Quotes ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Greger Huttu:
“Well, it's nice to finally finish the season, it's been a long one! I had one of my best quals, almost beat my PB on the last lap. The race itself was pretty similar to the previous one at Silverstone. Didn't get that bad of a start but Hugo passed me easily and then I was stuck behind him for the first stint, just over half a second behind most of the time but unable to get closer due to the mega-understeer. The pace wasn't that hot but couldn't do anything behind him. Sometimes when I dropped back a bit more the car was turning so much better that it was nuts.
I got by him during the first stops by going one lap shorter on fuel. Closed in on Jesse a bit but the 6 seconds or something lost during the first stint was too much. The traffic also made it tough, lost about 1.5 seconds behind Aleksi again on one lap which was nice. I made my second pit stop one lap earlier than Jesse and Hugo and was just hoping to stay in front of Hugo by some margin and that worked out.
I kept pushing on the last stint and increased the gap to Hugo a bit but then almost had a heart attack on lap 57 when Brad went off in Bridge. I was just able to avoid him but then saw a 4x and his car flying in my mirrors. It was really close so I guess the net code had a hard time deciding what to do. I got through without contact though and there was no damage so was able to finish the race and the season on a good note. Congrats to Jesse for the win!
I'm satisfied with 2nd in the champ, although the season was far from optimal having missed one race and with a couple of bad results. But it's always good to finish top-3 in the DWC, I'm sure it'll just get tougher every season. Thanks to the team and Fanatec for support all season, was great working together. It's nice to have a break now but will start looking forward to the next season soon enough!”
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Luke McLean:
“failed qualifying hard got a pretty good start and jumped Klaus and was up to 6th when David and Atze came together in T1, luckily Atzes car spun wide and I got through it and into 5th. BL Atze, awesome pace this week! Than just ran behind David until he had an issue with his connection or PC so I was running 4th with Klaus pretty close behind.
I intiailly had good pace and the gap between myself and Greger was consistant, however I lost some rythm and ultimately dropped back. After the first stop I once again had great pace but everytime I got a rythm going I got hit with some nasty traffic and almost crashed multiple times trying to lap, seemed I caught them often in the wrong spot, just the way it goes sometimes.
After the final stop I had a gap of about 7 sec to Hugo infront and 10 sec behind Klaus so It was just a matter of bringing the car home, though I did push hard and felt like I closed the gap quite a bit, pity I left it a bit too late
Grats to Jesse, great drive, and grats to the rest of the podium and once again to Hugo for the title. Thank you Team Redline, see you all next season.”
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Dom Duhan:
“Awesome pace by Jesse and Greger up front
After very little practise this is a great result for me. My qual was a bit disappointing however being 15th on the grid I was sure I could make my way up as my race pace had been stronger.
After another good start I settled in behind Blake and Jeremy, I could see Jeremy trying every way to pass and realised that this would bode well for me as I appeared heavier on fuel. And that really was the story of my race, I was running heavier in the first stint and the 2nd and managed to pass people in the pits, eventually moving up to 9th with 10 laps to go. Jake was around 6 secs back and I felt comfortable with the pace, and then half spun at Abbey, giving Jake a nice carrot to hunt down, luckily I just had the pace to keep him at bay. I felt sorry for Matthias at the end, blowing his engine with 5 corners to go, that pushed me up to 8th.
Really pleased overall with this race, need to find much more pace next season! Thanks to the team who gave out a great setup and assistance, thanks to Fanatec.”
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Atze Kerkhof:
“Srry David, I totally had no clue you were next to me, F3 hud was blipping and couldnt see you. Looks like phantom contact but without I would've hit you also. I want tripple screens .
Thanks to the team for the good testing and for the great welcome! Cya in Pro”
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Darren Marsh:
“Didn't practice much for this one but had good pace anyway thanks to some great setups from the team.
I was running ok just tooling around and got a fraction wide out of T1 and it spat me into the weeds. Came back on dead last at the back of a massive train. There were a couple crashes and near crashes that I managed to avoid but I eventually got caught up in one and nerfed my suspension.
So thanks to the team, Atze for his nice qual setup and Fanatec for their support this year.”
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