Faster Than Speed left Hungaroring with two more World Championship points in its pocket. John-Eric Saxen finished the Hungarian GP in 9th place, despite having to bring his first stop forwards and alter its strategy due to sustaining car damage in the opening lap.
Carlos Hernandez also scored points with a solid race in the World Series event.
In the World Championship, John-Eric Saxen and Giuseppe Marconi were unable to make it into the Q2 session this time, with the Finn hampered by traffic on his fastest attempt. They qualified in 14th and 20th places respectively.
After making a good launch off the line, John-Eric ran into problems in the opening lap. As Room and Nilsson collided heavily out of Turn 4, John-Eric had to back off as wings and wheels flew off the involved cars. While he managed to avoid hitting anything, Kanitz was caught unaware of what was happening ahead and ran into the back of the FTS driver, damaging the rear bodywork of his FTS-P12. Due to the damage sustained, the team decided to bring his first stop forwards to make repairs in pitlane, switching John-Eric from his planned 5-stop strategy to a 6-stopper.
While a long first pitstop and the strategic compromise cost John-Eric a few positions, he recovered strongly to finish the race in 9th position, picking up two valuable points for the championship. While John-Eric could have battled for a top-6 finish under normal conditions, it was a good outcome after a tough race.
Giuseppe, meanwhile, was able to find his way through the opening lap accident without issues before deploying a 4-stop strategy. With a long first stint, he ran as high as 7th before diving into the pitlane for the first time. A much higher engine wear than in testing, however, didn't allow Giuseppe to remain in the midfield battle, with the Italian having to nurse the car home at a slow pace for half the race distance. For his efforts, Giuseppe was rewarded with a 12th place finish, his best of the season to date.
John-Eric Saxen (9th): "I knew Qualifying on this track would be very important and unfortunately I just lost the needed tenth to get into the top-10 this time, ending up in P14.
The race got more difficult in turn 4, as accidents ahead forced me to brake a bit earlier, resulting in heavy contact with Kanitz from behind. I decided to pit on lap 7 with a badly bent car to avoid losing more time and switched to a 6-stop strategy.
The strategy worked reasonably well, as I was able to catch the cars ahead constantly. On my second last pitstop, I just failed to jump Patel, which then left me blocked with newer tires for another 10 laps. At the final stop, I was able to jump Disley and later Patel after his brake issues emerged, thus finishing the race in P9.
Reflecting on the championship, I had hoped for a bit better result, but the race was largely over after the poor Qualifying and the first lap incident. After this, any points were a welcome bonus."
Giuseppe Marconi (12th): "This kind of track doesn't suit my driving style and I was about half a second slower a lap than my possibilities. So I decided for 4-stops trying to get others doing more stops stuck behind me. At half distance I had only about 35% of engine life left so I decided to drive about 2 seconds slower a lap to save it and be able to finish the race. It's very strange that engine temperature was about 2-3 °C higher than in race testing. However, at the end I was able to finish."
In the World Series, Carlos Hernandez drove a very good race, showing good pace and resisting a late attack from Mallorqui to finish 11th ahead of his Spaniard compatriot by a tenth of a second, claiming his best finish this season to date.
In the World Trophy, both Kevin Clark and Sami Pesari qualified for the Grid 1 race but where unable to finish the GP. Specially Sami made good progress during the race, with a top-10 finish within reach before his unfortunate retirement.
After a 3-week break, Faster Than Speed will be moving to the Valencia Street Circuit, which will host the Spanish GP this year, the eighth round of the season. FSR last raced at the street venue in 2010, while FTS celebrated victory in WS Advanced's inaugural Valencia race in 2008. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter (@FTS_Racing) and Google+ for the latest news and live coverage from Spain!
Faster Than Speed
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