The Singapore GP eventually confirmed what had mainly been a matter of time: both Bono Huis and Precision Motorsports managed to secure world championship titles, with three races left to go.
The weekend began with World Series, the main outcome from qualifying being Jeffrey Rietveld's front row on the grid, while other Precision cars struggled. After a dramatic warmup lap the Precision troops recapitulated somewhat, but the bad luck from Monza continued when Mattias Stahre damaged his car and Cyril Werdmuller retired due to sudden electrical failure. The outcome was compensated by Rietveld, who despite not being 100% happy with the car managed to score home a podium, his second in a row. Fred Gosling continued consistent performing by finishing fourth. With four races to go, Precision maintains a still steady 1-2 (Werdmuller-Stahre) in the championship.
In World Trophy it was again Allar Foht who secured the quickest lap time to take his third consecutive pole. The Estonian easily maintained the lead after a weak start from opponents and soon blasted into the distance. The ever so consistent Pedro Melim once again failed to disappoint after another moderate qualifying. The Portuguese stole positions after mistakes from opponents to eventually finish third. But the race was mainly Allar Foht's, who took a dominating victory and now looks to have secured P2 in the championship, behind Melim.
World Championship was this time a less exciting show, but not for Precision, as the team had the first real opportunity to secure both world championships. No pressure was seemingly visible on Bono Huis, as the Dutch took pole in front of Bruno Marques by being the only human braking the 1:36 mark. The race start saw Precision taking P1 and P2 with Huis leading, followed by Ronny Hähnel. This development basically secured the race, and without further mistakes from Huis, combined with brilliant pit stops, the Dutch was able to score one of his most convincing victories, leading from start to finish and finishing 18 seconds in front of team-mate Hähnel.
The result secured Huis his first world championship in the elite series, following the three times in a row winner Bruno Marques and reigning champion Roy Kolbe. The championship also came as the earliest secured in the FSR history, with three races still to go. Rasmus Tali (5th) and Jaakko Mikkonen (7th) carried home enough points to secure the Precision Motorsports team the constructors' championship. At the end of the day, a perfect outcome from the weekend, but not to worry, some victory hunger will remain for the last races of the season as well.
Johannes Kunkel, Precision Motorsports team owner commented:
"Truely a great weekend for the team. Massive Congratulations to Bono for a perfect season and congratulations for the rest of the WC crew as well for securing the team championship. Now only the WS titles are open and we will try our very best to secure them as soon as possible."
Bono Huis (1st and champion):
"WORLD CHAMPIONS! What a great way to win the championship! After so much hard work this season it feels very rewarding to secure the championship with a win. I want to thank the whole team for this truly amazing year. About the race, it was another fantastic race. The setup was so good, one of the best setups of the season. The car was pretty easy to drive and I showed that in qualifying by taking pole. In the first few laps I couldn't get rid of Ronny; so I was a bit worried, but then he started to make some mistakes and I could get away. The rest of the race the gap was increasing all the time, but it was very difficult to keep the concentration. I think this is the longest race of the year and the track is so difficult, it was really hard to keep the concentration for so long, especially when you are in front for the whole race. So to win this race feels very special, and to secure the championship here aswell is just amazing."
Ronny Hähnel (2nd):
"I was a bit unlucky again. I had a brake pedal issue as in Melbourne during qualification, but I could solve the issue to 95%, so result was not too bad in the qualification.
I could pass Bruno in the first turn and followed Bono for the first laps. After some laps I struggled a bit and lost connection to Bono but was still enough to stay in font of Bruno. From that point my race was quite boring besides my spin in the last section. Now I'm in 4th place in the championship and can even climb higher in the next races.
Congrats to Bono for his win and WC title of course!"
Rasmus Tali (5th):
"Was struggling the whole week with the setup and didn't find any speed at all which was a bit of a surprising. Thankfully 2h before the race started Jaakko pitched his setup and I was immediately a lot faster with it. In start I was cautious and agressive as always, gained 1 place and was stuck in the Twister train after that, and once touched the wall a bit which made some damage so I lost time in corners where more aerodynamic grip was needed.
Some laps later Greco spun in front of me and Marques so I started to think about where I could make a move on Bruno, but 2 corners later I managed to put my inside wheel 2 cm too much into the anticut and I had to make a 360 which made me lose some 5 seconds. During the second pit stops I pitted 1 lap sooner than Greco while being 1.5 seconds behind him and it was enough to come infront of him. Some 15 laps to go I noticed I had less fuel than expected and had to drive the last laps with really low boost.
I have mixed feelings from this race. Before race started I would have been happy with a top 5 finish but knowing that Jaakko came up with a setup that realy suited me I can only wonder what could have been if I had a bit more time to bond with the setup.
Congrats to Bono he deserved his title this year and congrats to all in Precision Motorsports."
Jaakko Mikkonen (7th) commented:
"Did a PB in qual which was ok I suppose. I didn't really have any pace so could have been worse. I took start too easily and lost one place to Poniatowski, who sadly was even slower than me, costing some time on the first stint. I pitted early to pass him which worked ok.
For the second stint I had better track position but worse tyres, so Morris caught me from behind. While nearing the end of the second stint I started to realize I was using too much fuel. I was hoping I could be slightly faster on third stint compared to Morris as then I didn't have as much older tyres than I had on the second stint.
At the end my pace didn't improve. Probably got even worse. On the last 20 laps or so I was three liters over the target, basically one lap short on fuel. Morris was charging behind. I couldn't continue driving on normal boost. I had to simply drive slower and hope for the best.
In the end I kept my 7th place. On second last lap Lee got closer and tried all he could on the chicane, but luckily for me he spun."
Jeffrey Rietveld (3rd) commented:
"My race wasn't that exciting this time. Qualifying went good, near my pb. Start was good too, kept second place and remained on it for quite some laps. After a few laps, Stefan Kanitz was really close to me and could eventually pass me. A few laps later it was Dimitri's turn to pass me. I wasn't really happy about the car / track combination this time.
The team did a great work on the setup side which I'm really happy about still. Let's see if I can put some pressure on Atze at Suzuka!"
Allar Foht (1st) commented:
"To win in such difficult track is always a nice thing to do. Qualification wasn't very good, nearly half second off from pb, luckily it was just enough for pole. Got a great start and managed to pull away from Eduard. Later in the stint was just focusing to bring the car home which i managed, though I had some scary moments with few backmarkers. All in all a great weekend again for Precision Motorsports, thanks for the team and team managers for great effort again."
Precision Motorsports
Official Press Release
written by John-Eric Saxen
www.precision-motorsports.de
The weekend began with World Series, the main outcome from qualifying being Jeffrey Rietveld's front row on the grid, while other Precision cars struggled. After a dramatic warmup lap the Precision troops recapitulated somewhat, but the bad luck from Monza continued when Mattias Stahre damaged his car and Cyril Werdmuller retired due to sudden electrical failure. The outcome was compensated by Rietveld, who despite not being 100% happy with the car managed to score home a podium, his second in a row. Fred Gosling continued consistent performing by finishing fourth. With four races to go, Precision maintains a still steady 1-2 (Werdmuller-Stahre) in the championship.
In World Trophy it was again Allar Foht who secured the quickest lap time to take his third consecutive pole. The Estonian easily maintained the lead after a weak start from opponents and soon blasted into the distance. The ever so consistent Pedro Melim once again failed to disappoint after another moderate qualifying. The Portuguese stole positions after mistakes from opponents to eventually finish third. But the race was mainly Allar Foht's, who took a dominating victory and now looks to have secured P2 in the championship, behind Melim.
World Championship was this time a less exciting show, but not for Precision, as the team had the first real opportunity to secure both world championships. No pressure was seemingly visible on Bono Huis, as the Dutch took pole in front of Bruno Marques by being the only human braking the 1:36 mark. The race start saw Precision taking P1 and P2 with Huis leading, followed by Ronny Hähnel. This development basically secured the race, and without further mistakes from Huis, combined with brilliant pit stops, the Dutch was able to score one of his most convincing victories, leading from start to finish and finishing 18 seconds in front of team-mate Hähnel.
The result secured Huis his first world championship in the elite series, following the three times in a row winner Bruno Marques and reigning champion Roy Kolbe. The championship also came as the earliest secured in the FSR history, with three races still to go. Rasmus Tali (5th) and Jaakko Mikkonen (7th) carried home enough points to secure the Precision Motorsports team the constructors' championship. At the end of the day, a perfect outcome from the weekend, but not to worry, some victory hunger will remain for the last races of the season as well.
Johannes Kunkel, Precision Motorsports team owner commented:
"Truely a great weekend for the team. Massive Congratulations to Bono for a perfect season and congratulations for the rest of the WC crew as well for securing the team championship. Now only the WS titles are open and we will try our very best to secure them as soon as possible."
Bono Huis (1st and champion):
"WORLD CHAMPIONS! What a great way to win the championship! After so much hard work this season it feels very rewarding to secure the championship with a win. I want to thank the whole team for this truly amazing year. About the race, it was another fantastic race. The setup was so good, one of the best setups of the season. The car was pretty easy to drive and I showed that in qualifying by taking pole. In the first few laps I couldn't get rid of Ronny; so I was a bit worried, but then he started to make some mistakes and I could get away. The rest of the race the gap was increasing all the time, but it was very difficult to keep the concentration. I think this is the longest race of the year and the track is so difficult, it was really hard to keep the concentration for so long, especially when you are in front for the whole race. So to win this race feels very special, and to secure the championship here aswell is just amazing."
Ronny Hähnel (2nd):
"I was a bit unlucky again. I had a brake pedal issue as in Melbourne during qualification, but I could solve the issue to 95%, so result was not too bad in the qualification.
I could pass Bruno in the first turn and followed Bono for the first laps. After some laps I struggled a bit and lost connection to Bono but was still enough to stay in font of Bruno. From that point my race was quite boring besides my spin in the last section. Now I'm in 4th place in the championship and can even climb higher in the next races.
Congrats to Bono for his win and WC title of course!"
Rasmus Tali (5th):
"Was struggling the whole week with the setup and didn't find any speed at all which was a bit of a surprising. Thankfully 2h before the race started Jaakko pitched his setup and I was immediately a lot faster with it. In start I was cautious and agressive as always, gained 1 place and was stuck in the Twister train after that, and once touched the wall a bit which made some damage so I lost time in corners where more aerodynamic grip was needed.
Some laps later Greco spun in front of me and Marques so I started to think about where I could make a move on Bruno, but 2 corners later I managed to put my inside wheel 2 cm too much into the anticut and I had to make a 360 which made me lose some 5 seconds. During the second pit stops I pitted 1 lap sooner than Greco while being 1.5 seconds behind him and it was enough to come infront of him. Some 15 laps to go I noticed I had less fuel than expected and had to drive the last laps with really low boost.
I have mixed feelings from this race. Before race started I would have been happy with a top 5 finish but knowing that Jaakko came up with a setup that realy suited me I can only wonder what could have been if I had a bit more time to bond with the setup.
Congrats to Bono he deserved his title this year and congrats to all in Precision Motorsports."
Jaakko Mikkonen (7th) commented:
"Did a PB in qual which was ok I suppose. I didn't really have any pace so could have been worse. I took start too easily and lost one place to Poniatowski, who sadly was even slower than me, costing some time on the first stint. I pitted early to pass him which worked ok.
For the second stint I had better track position but worse tyres, so Morris caught me from behind. While nearing the end of the second stint I started to realize I was using too much fuel. I was hoping I could be slightly faster on third stint compared to Morris as then I didn't have as much older tyres than I had on the second stint.
At the end my pace didn't improve. Probably got even worse. On the last 20 laps or so I was three liters over the target, basically one lap short on fuel. Morris was charging behind. I couldn't continue driving on normal boost. I had to simply drive slower and hope for the best.
In the end I kept my 7th place. On second last lap Lee got closer and tried all he could on the chicane, but luckily for me he spun."
Jeffrey Rietveld (3rd) commented:
"My race wasn't that exciting this time. Qualifying went good, near my pb. Start was good too, kept second place and remained on it for quite some laps. After a few laps, Stefan Kanitz was really close to me and could eventually pass me. A few laps later it was Dimitri's turn to pass me. I wasn't really happy about the car / track combination this time.
The team did a great work on the setup side which I'm really happy about still. Let's see if I can put some pressure on Atze at Suzuka!"
Allar Foht (1st) commented:
"To win in such difficult track is always a nice thing to do. Qualification wasn't very good, nearly half second off from pb, luckily it was just enough for pole. Got a great start and managed to pull away from Eduard. Later in the stint was just focusing to bring the car home which i managed, though I had some scary moments with few backmarkers. All in all a great weekend again for Precision Motorsports, thanks for the team and team managers for great effort again."
Precision Motorsports
Official Press Release
written by John-Eric Saxen
www.precision-motorsports.de
