Patrick De Wit secured Faster Than Speed's second Pole Position of the World Championship season at the Hungaroring, adding to the one achieved in Monte Carlo in June. It was FTS' third Pole in its WC history.
The race was unfortunately not as successful, with a race incident plus an unscheduled stop leaving Patrick out of contention for the top spots, although he still salvaged the last point.
In the World Championship, Patrick De Wit set the 10th quickest time in the Q1 session, just sloting himself into the Q2 session. In Q2, however, Patrick surprised everyone by setting the fastest time, beating Kerkhof by one and a half tenths to claim his second Pole Position of the season. It was an almost perfect lap from Patrick, who made great use of his soft tyres, chosen for an aggressive race strategy.
Patrick made a good start to lead the field through Turn 1, and although a small slide in Turn 3 temporarily allowed Huis through, Patrick quickly recovered the lead on the following corner. After leading the first five laps, Huis found his way through. Struggling for rear grip, Patrick lost a few positions before entering the pits for the first of three planned stops at the end of lap 15. His engine stalled after the stop, costing Patrick a further couple of places while his mechanics restarted the engine.
After overtaking Heikkinen, drama happened while attacking Mikkonen. The Precision Motorsports driver touched the grass and lost control of his car right ahead of Patrick, who had no time to react and collided into him. The incident broke Patrick's front wing and damaged his suspension, with the unscheduled stop for repairs just 6 laps after his first stop completely ruining his soft-tyre strategy.
Due to the extra pitstop, the team had to switch Patrick to a four-stop strategy. With a top 5 position now out of the cards, Patrick tried to return to the top-ten. Pushing very hard to catch Room towards the end of the race, he managed to take the last point-scoring position as the Estonian struggled with tyre issues. Despite the missed potential, 10th place was a satisfying consolation for a difficult race after a brilliant Qualifying.
Faster Than Speed wishes to congratulate Bono Huis on claiming the 2011 FSR World Championship after only 11 rounds.
Patrick De Wit (10th): "What a great day for FTS again! I did not expect to be in the Top 10 in Q1, but it seems I just held on to 10th position. My lap in Q2 was almost perfect, I was the only driver to break the 1:16 barrier with a time of 1:15.9. I must admit I was on soft tyres, since the car balance wasn't good on the medium and hard compounds, so we've decided to go with a 3-stopper strategy. To set Pole was above expectations, so we could add the 3rd ever WC Pole for FTS!
In the race I knew there was going to be pressure from behind. I tried to fend off as long as I could, but lap 1 was nerve wrecking. We almost lost control of our cars on lap 1. I made a huge error exiting Turn 3 and Huis overtook me, but he ran too deep into Turn 4 so I got 1st place back. Then, on lap 6 I believe, I ran too deep into Turn 2 trying to defend and Bono passed. I was then very nervous, car slid and lost a few more positions, before stalling car in the first pitstop, where some other went through. I was then pushing to catch Mikkonen in front, but the moment I wanted to pass he ran onto the grass, almost spinning his car. I had nowhere to go, did not expect him to spin there. It cost both of us a better position. In the end, still happy to get that point for 10th place. See you at Spa!"
In the World Trophy division, Alberto De Juan made his return, showing potential for a good result. However, his race was already over on lap 2 after being hit by a competitor.
Faster Than Speed now moves to the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, a favourite among drivers and fans. At the Belgian GP, Patrick De Wit took a podium finish for FTS in 2007. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest news and live coverage from Belgium!
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Faster Than Speed
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