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Precision Motorsports arrived to Istanbul Park with a humble championship leading position in all three categories and managed to maintain the lead despite some drama in the World Championship.

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The World Series qualifying brought a somewhat difficult start to the weekend, which was easily compensated by the race performance. Third qualified David Martinez put up a great victory fight with a 1-stop strategy, which the Spaniard unfortunately couldn't fully realize due to damage in the mid part of the race. Meanwhile Cyril Werdmuller had made a strong leap towards the front after a suboptimal qualifying, which rewarded him with a strong third place. Mattias Stahre, however, once again proved to be the man in the race, as the Stockholm resident managed to pull ahead of Lukas Euler after a race-long duel, thanks to an awesome maneuver in the penultimate lap, scoring his second victory of the season. The result secured Precision a 1-2-3 in the championship standings.

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World Trophy provided another somewhat fluctuating qualifying performance, but the result was soon to be forgotten as Pedro Melim was again in his element in the race. The championship leader took the victory in style after dominating the entire race with the help of an early overtake of polesitter and ex-team-mate Muhammed Patel, bringing the fifth season victory for the Portuguese. Ajibola Lawal finally managed to turn around his luck somewhat thanks to a podium position, whilst Emre Uysal continued his consistent performing in fifth place.


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World Championship repeated the mantra "one of the closest qualifyings in FSR history", whilst less than four tenths separated the top 15, with Bono Huis and Rasmus Tali in P4 and P5 in the hotlap-biased field. The joy after another clean start did not last long, as David Greco unsettled his car sideways in the final corner, which collected both Ronny Hähnel and Rasmus Tali. The Estonian carried on with a lost front wing, but spun back on the track after running wide, which brought the championship leader his first retirement in the WC.
Whilst Jaakko Mikkonen was making up his way starting from the pits, Bono Huis was solely responsible for carrying the Precision colors at the front while defending against Bruno Marques. The Barcelona incident was seemingly forgotten as the duo carried out a fantastic fight, including no less than 34 swaps of position, which eventually ended in the victory of Marques on the final lap. Jaakko Mikkonen drove an intelligent race to finish 5th after starting from pits, which certainly was the maximum result. The result gave Twister-Racing back the lead in the teams' championship, whereas Precision now maintains a double lead in the drivers' championship.

The next round will be held on the exciting Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, where the team scored it´s first ever double victory in 2009.
As the famous final corner states, Bienvenue au Quebec!, live on the following Sunday.


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Ondrej Kuncman, Precision Motorsports team manager commented:
"Even though we didnt't achieve all we wanted, we can consider the Turkish GP as a good weekend. The car was generally a bit less drivable than some previous races, but luckily all the drivers did as always a great job and made up for lacking in the setup area. The only negative moment was start of the WC race when Rasmus and Ronny got into trouble. Seemingly the other teams are getting closer each race, we saw some interesting performances, which made us think and improve certain areas of our race preparation in order to promote communication and further improve team work. Let's see how that works in Canada."

Selected driver quotes:

Ajibola Lawal (3rd) commented:
"Qualifying went bad which seems to be a regular occurrence this year so I'll look into this, but still P6 was ok. My start was good and after a few laps I was into 3rd where I was stuck behind Muhammed Patel for the whole race. I tried to overtake but it wasn't possible due to some unfortunate server lag. Many thanks to the team who did a great job in helping to set up our cars, especially John-Eric Saxen and Mattias Stahre. Will keep pushing and hopefully I can get much better results as I'm not achieving the best I can lately."

Mattias Stahre (1st) commented:
"Great race and victory! My preparation for this race had not been really good and I was really not expecting to win this one. Starting 4th is not really ideal on this track but in the end it allowed me to have a great fight with Lukas Euler for the win and obviously I´m very happy to take it myself after many laps of trying to overtake.

However, we are lacking in some areas and the question is if we can figure it out and get some more pace and drivability in the car. The next track is quite rear limited with long acceleration zones from slow speed and hopefully we can keep up with the others there."


David Martinez (4th) commented:
"First of all thanks to all Precision Motorsports members for their work and setups; without this it would have been impossible to obtain good results for me with my limited training for the races. Congratulations to my teammate Mattias for his victory and of course Cyril for his podium. About my race , the qualify were lot better than expected. I hoped to have a good race pace, and it was. On lap 10 in a fight with Euler under braking in the long back straight I received a hit on the back and my car was damaged in the rear.

After the damage I decided to go one stop without knowing if the tires could last. The end result was not bad, 4th position. Very good considering the circumstances. I am very glad as I didn't expect to be competitive in Turkey, but also a little sad because I lost the chance to fight for a win due to damage."

Bono Huis (2nd) commented:
"Obviously it's quite disappointing to lose the victory in the final few corners, but looking at my pace I think it's still a good result. Bruno was faster all race, and he had way more topspeed, so to keep him behind for 57 laps is good. I knew he wasn't trying that hard all race, so I knew it was going down to the last lap and there Bruno drove perfect, he put the car just in the right places in the final 3 corners. So I didn't have any chance to repass him. So congrats to Bruno for the awesome race, looking forward to Canada already, hopefully we have some more top speed."

Jaakko Mikkonen (5th) commented:
"I started the race from pit lane with Mathieu Prèvot due to the penalties from the previous race. At start I tried to get rid of Mathieu, but as it seemed impossible, I decided to just drive with him instead of keeping fighting and losing time. Later Mathieu pitted and I continued alone, then I had two stoppers front of me, basically faster cars but I could stay in touch and gain time with them.Race continued and I found myself from 6th place after everyone had made their final stops. I tried all I could but Poniatowski came behind and went past. Again I could just follow him and hope for the best. On final laps Poniatowski tried to pass some car, which luckily for me ended in collision. I passed the two cars on front and finished the race on fifth place. Race went even better than I hoped so I must be really happy about the result."


Precision Motorsports

Official Press Release
written by John-Eric Saxen
www.precision-motorsports.de
 
fsrwhite.jpgThe championship fight is heating up. As recently announced Twister-Racing has signed David Greco and the returning Dennis Hirrle takes the GhostSpeed seat. The Montreal circuit provides fantastic racing and history, but who is the most successful FSR racer around Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve? What will the finishing order between the blue and white cars on Sunday be? Read the full preview to find the answers, remember to place your bets and watch the broadcast, from AutoGP World Championship live on MultiBC Sunday 17:10 GMT onwards.

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Track facts:
Length: 4.361km
Race distance: 70 laps / 305.270km
Direction: clockwise
Number of corners: 13 (left: 5, right: 8)
Full throttle: 57%
Tyre wear: Low
Engine wear: Medium
Downforce: Low
Lap record: David Greco 1:12.398 (2006)



Previous winners:

2009 David Greco
2008 Roy Kolbe
2007 David Greco
2006 David Greco
2005 Dennis Hirrle
2004 Joshua Lyon
2003 Dominik Binz
2002 Ernesto De Angelis
2001
Christian Neumann


History

Ever since the league was founded, Formula SimRacing has hosted a race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve - a track which certainly belongs to the beloved good old classics, being especially known from providing exciting races with plenty of retirements, as the semi-permanent street layout leaves little margin for errors.

David Greco has established himself particularly successful around Montreal; the Italian has won the WC event here no less than 3 times. After a first superior win for Kiwi Virtual in 2006 (the race which also set the official lap record), Greco continued his victor row in 2007 by just edging out Bruno Marques in a race remembered by multiple brake failures.

The 2008 race was shadowed by connection issues (and the absence of Greco and Marques), which Roy Kolbe utilized to take his first victory around the streets of Montreal after a race-long battle with Ondrej Kuncman. The 2009 race saw Precision Motorsports take their first double victory in WC - a race lead by Jaakko Mikkonen for the major part, but eventually won by whom else than Greco.


Race analysis

Before drawing attention to the present, a brief comment on the Istanbul race and how it changed the championship situation?


As I outlined in the previous article, the Turkish race would be a turning event for Marques and Greco to catch the championship train, and for sure their performing at Istanbul Park left no one cold. Greco was unable to capitalize on his excellent qualifying but Marques took his first win in over a year by overtaking Huis on the final lap, which, if anything, will help him to gain even more momentum. The Marques-Huis duel provided one of the best fights seen in recent history, where two opponents fought hard but fair.

Regarding the championship, the retirement of Rasmus Tali narrowed down the gaps cunningly, but the Estonian still leads thanks to amazing consistency in the first six races. But the fact that Domagoj Malezic quits driving will undoubtedly turn some things upside down...

Onto the recent news (Malezic quits, Greco to Twister-Racing, Dennis Hirrle to GhostSpeed on loan). Win-win for Twister-Racing?

No doubt about that. Although the performing of Malezic was impressive and even overshadowed team-mate Marques for most of the time, the power duo Greco and Marques have potential to bring Twister-Racing to new spheres. Foremost, the setup development can be steered towards a certain direction since both drivers have generally similar preferences, which was not entirely the case with Marques and Malezic. The motives of Dennis Hirrle are not entirely clear to me, but certainly the 2009 vice-champion did a big favour to his team by being the catalyst to enable this trade.

Through this move, my perception further strengthened regarding the championship fight being a two-front war between Twister-Racing and Precision Motorsports, where both teams are ready to apparently sacrifice anything for the win. This situation is great in one sense but also brings up some question marks regarding the competition and its distribution among teams.

What kind of question marks?

Let's be critical for a moment and consider the current situation between the teams. An ideal of 12 independent world championship teams is quite far from being realized at the moment: Precision Motorsports employs 5 WC drivers, Twister-Racing (thanks to the move) equally 5 drivers, a total of which 9(!) occupy the top 10 standings in World Championship. Remaining teams have furthermore sought alliances and other questionable deals; as demonstrative examples Samuel Libeert racing for both Ash Racing and Roaldo Racing, David Greco offering help to Roaldo Racing, and to some extent sharing of knowledge between the Ash-Torrent-Roaldo axis (which is not disallowed per se).

But one may ask, what are the chances of an independent team like the newcomer Simracing Zone to succeed in such a harsh alliance-covered sim-racing front? This general issue has little to do with the leauge itself, it is more a matter of critical discussion between the team managers.

Moving on to Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve, what will the track offer the live broadcast spectators?

Collissions, if nothing more... The start and the first few corners are very challenging and narrow, which almost certainly will guarantee some degree of contact. Technically, the circuit offers some unique challenges for the driver; narrow corners driven close to the walls with low downforce and riding over kerbs. Tyre wear is non-existent but a well-balanced car, especially suspension and damping, is crucial to guarantee good behaviour during the long transitions out of corners.

The track is not as overtaking-friendly as the layout might suggest, which is why we won't see similar overtaking as in Turkey. Strategy timing, along with a good grid position will once again be the key to success.

Looking at the track history, certainly one name rises above the rest?

David Greco, although he has never been on pole here. In order to win on Sunday, the Italian ought to brake that curse. The strongest opposition will come from team-mate Bruno Marques and Precision Motorsports' Bono Huis, although surprise names can't be completely ruled out in qualifying, amongst those Lee Morris, Mathieu Prevot and Fredrik Nilsson (the Swede has by the way surprised the signed totally by his impressive and consistent drives). Despite this, the race will most probably be another Twister - Precision encounter, where Twister thanks to the recent moves has a slight edge around this track. Somehow, I predict all cars won't make it out of that fight without minor injuries, or even some true knock-outs...


JES


 

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Roaldo-Racing-Logo-GPCOS.jpgThe Roaldo Racing/RedSpeed completed the team with the signing of a race-engineer and test-driver. With Dan Rasmusson the team gets a race-engineer who will help the team with their strategy and most importantly during the race Dan can provide feedback of the current race situation. This way the team hopes to be able to gain vital seconds and close the gap even further to the front runners. Maurice Duecker will help during the week in the testing and to prepare the team for the raceweekend, during teamtests Maurice will be present and gather data to improve the setup and find those tenths.

Roald Reurink: "A logical step for a proffesional team with high ambitions. As team-manager I saw we lost important seconds in the pit-stops, pitting too late or too early. This year it is very close, so Dan will help us move up a few positions in the race for WC, WS and WT! I'm of course very happy that Dan will be assisting us with his knowledge. Maurice has been with the team for a short time now and is doing very well. Same as Dan, he does what he can do help find time to close the gap and fight for the victory. I'm also looking into the possibilities to use the Pitwall Engineer software to gather more data during the race to help Dan with his job."

Roald continued: "For everyone who is interested in the Pitwall Engineer software check out: http://www.pitwall-project.com/engineer.pwp ... I did not take the time to really study it, so if anyone reading this has information about it, let me know."
 

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silverlinefirsttest.jpgDespite the fact that motorsport worldwide is reeling from the current global credit crunch, it has been revealed that a new FSR team will be taking to the grand prix starting grid.

Sim Racing websites have reported that the new squad – called Silverline Racing – has been rumoured for some time now, and with a group approach to the team's leadership, led by team manager Rizwan Sarwar and highly-respected technical and design guru Camilo Nino, whose cars have shown they can maintain the pace at very high levels of sim racing, are looking to be as competitive as possible right out of the gates.

It is claimed that the new team – which began to take shape following Williamson Dynamics withdraw from FSR this season, have received the blessing of the FSR governing body to participate at the next grand prix -the car is currently being unveiled to the public , and looks to be ready to make its FSR debut as early as Valenica.

Silverline Racing will allegedly have its outfit at a brand new facility within close proximity of the Silverstone Racetrack. When asked if that had anything to do with the naming of the team, Mr. Sarwar commented that it was purely coincidence but has certainly given the team a bit of extra press. There could also be a Canadian headquarters in Vancouver, Canada where it is rumoured that the car was originally designed.

It is claimed that Sarwar and the team's goal was to bring more unity to the ogranization of team management in a more structured and balanced approach. Due to this, Silverline Racing will see both drivers and technology from many parts of the globe.

To start out, Silverline will be placing 2 cars in each of the World Series and World Trophy divisions of FSR. There are rumours circulating around as to who will fill the seats in Valencia but nothing has yet been confirmed. Mr. Sarwar did mention that we can all be certain that the drivers are already known within the FSR community and will use their previous race experience to build on what has already been a great start to the launch of Silverline Racing.
 
hahnel-canada.jpgRonny Hähnel has won round eight of the Formula SimRacing AutoGP World Championship at Montreal, Canada! The young German crossed the finish line after 70 laps right ahead of his Precision Motorsports team mate Bono Huis. For Haehnel it was his first career win - in his first season.
David Greco finished in third, ahead of Twister-Racing team mate Bruno Marques who made it from 13th on the grid up to fourth. Dennis Hirrle (GhostSpeed Racing) on his return finished in fifth, ahead of Karol Poniatowski and Mikko Puumalainen (both SB Motorsports) in sixth and seventh, and Lukas Euler (GhostSpeed) in eigth.
Catch the Live Broadcast replay here.
A more detailed report and the race review video will be online shortly.
 
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