Italy: FTS leaves Monza empty-handed after disappointing race

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Faster Than Speed was unable to score any points at the FSR World Championship's Italian GP, with John-Eric Saxen finishing the Monza race just outside the points in 11th place.

Mark Aalberts, who replaced Giuseppe Marconi, suffered from suspension damage which compromised his race heavily, ending in 14th position.

In the World Championship, John-Eric Saxen drove a fantastic lap in Q1, just 4 tenths of a second slower than Morand's, which left him 8th in the session. In Q2, he was unable to repeat the peformance from minutes earlier but he secured 10th on the grid. Giuseppe Marconi was replaced by Mark Aalberts who jumped into the FTS-P12 at the last minute. Ville Leppala was scheduled to drive but got injured before the race. Mark was unable to take part in Qualifying due to late allocation, meaning he started from the back of the grid in 23rd.

John-Eric made a good, clean start, avoiding all types of contact and keeping his 10th place. Since he deployed a 2-stopper strategy, he later lost positions to quicker lower-fueled rivals who were on 3-stopping strategies. John-Eric ran as high as 5th before stopping for the first time. However, struggling to get the maximum out of the FTS-P12 on low downforce configuration and feeling slightly unwell during the GP, he drove a solid and consistent race but was not able to break into the points, finishing the race in 11th place.

Mark made an excellent start, passing several cars before the first corner to complete the first lap in 17th place. He later passed Masciulli into Parabolica before they both went three-wide together with De Wit in a very tight battle into the first chicane the following lap. However, drama came when De Wit and Parisis made contact into turn 1. As Parisis tried to regain control of his car, Mark was unable to avoid the Greek driver and collided with him, picking up important front left suspension damage which would compromise the rest of his race.

The damage caught Mark out going into the second Lesmo corner, with the Dutch driver sliding into the gravel, pulling off a great save to avoid spinning. However, the damage cost him several tenths a lap throughout the whole race, making him unable to battle for points that would have been within reach otherwise. Mark still fought until the end and brought the car home in the lead lap in 14th place. We thank our friends at GhostSpeed Racing Team for allowing Mark to climb onboard the FTS-P12 at Monza!

John-Eric Saxen (11th): "This was not the weekend I expected. For reasons I don't fully understand the pace has been poor in the previous two rounds. In Qualifying 1 I put the lap together perfectly which brought me into Q2, but on race setup the car felt a bit different, and the lap wasn't stellar either, so started the race 10th.
During the first laps I lost a couple of positions, but I wasn't too worried yet as I was running a 2-stop as opposed to the more popular 3-stop option. In the middle of the stint I lost momentum for a while, which allowed Lapchin to pass me. This slowed me down a bit in the second stint, as I felt I had slightly more pace than him on fresh tires.
At half point, I realised the pace was too poor to challenge for good positions, as I was barely able to follow Lapchin. After him and De Wit retired I eventually finished P11, to end my most difficult weekend I've raced in Monza.
For some reason I enjoy Nürburgring as a track and the high downforce characteristic should hopefully help us to find a bit more pace there."


Mark Aalberts (14th): "In Qualifying, I had to start from the back of the grid so no laps done. In the race, all I wanted to do was surviving the first laps without problems, which I managed to do. Honestly it was such an intense race that I can't remember the key points so much, mainly battling with Disley and Kolarec in the back for some positions. I suffered left front damage early in the race sacrificing my pace badly. The car was hard to handle through the Lesmo's since it was having trouble to turn in.
Knowing my brakes were fine, all I could do was driving to the maxium that was possible with this car and hope that some retirements could give me a shot at the final points. But this didn't happen. Thanks to Christian Smirnoff for letting me drive the FTS car. Without the damage I'm confident I could have challenged for P9 or P10 today."


Faster Than Speed will now be heading to the Nurburgring, venue that will host the German GP, round 11 of the 2012 season after the 3-week break. While FTS didn't have much luck in German soil in recent seasons, we will definitely be hoping to return to the points this time! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter (@FTS_Racing) and Google+ for the latest news and live coverage from Germany!

Faster Than Speed
Press Release
http://www.fts-racing.net
 

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